To compare college and university student engagement in two countries with different responses to global forces, Canada and the United States (US), a series of hierarchical linear regression (HLM) models were developed to analyse data from the 2006 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Overall, students in the U.S. are more engaged, particularly in areas of active and collaborative learning and student-faculty interaction. This study identified areas of student engagement in both countries that administrators and researchers should investigate more thoroughly: Canadian and U.S. students in education and professional fields of study were more engaged generally, whereas Canadian students in the arts and humanities, and life and social sciences were less engaged than their peers. This large-scale quantitative comparative study provides insights and recommendations for future crossnational comparisons in higher education.