[The term usually describes universities. A redbrick university is one built
in the UK after WWII, as opposed to the older prestigious institutions such
as Oxford and Cambridge.]e.a.

Having had teachers of German at High School, one with an M.A. (Hons) from Cambridge, the other who seldom missed a chance to deprecate his rebrick alma mater, Reading, I have never heard or read the word used to describe anything other than universities. I could look up the OED but really can't be arsed. Does anybody have citations they've come across that use the word outside the varsity context?

in addition to red-brick universities, there've been:

1835 J. ROMILLY Diary 11 Mar. (1967) 70 They are nasty red-brick churches, in the worst stile of 1760. 1916 E. F. BENSON David Blaize v. 101 His horizon and aspirations stretched no farther than this red-brick arena. 1960 J. BETJEMAN Summoned by Bells v. 46 But for me, Less academic, red~brick Chalfont Road Meant great-aunt Wilkins, tea and buttered toast. [OED2]

-joe (gold-bricking) friday

In building is there a real difference between redbrick and brownstone buildings? I mean in brickstone there are so many shades of red - red ochre - reddish brown - brown.

brownstone's made of stone, and redbrick of brick, no?

Well yes, (did a search) brownstone is sandstone, and brick is from clay.
Next time I'll give a brownstone house a closer look.
Pretty dumb for one who's supposed to use her eyes.

Funny eh, but I've never heard those expressions. The words red brick are used only when describing a house, or building, made of red bricks, rather than some other shade of brick. It doesn't have any other connotation apart from imparting the colour of a brick used in construction.

I wonder if it is used similarly in the rest of Canada.

Anu's got this wrong, hasn't he? For example, Reading mentioned above was founded in 1892, chartered in 1926 - hardly after WWII.

On a separate note: the IVY in Ivy League refered to the top 4 or "IV" universities: Princeton, Harvard, U. of Pennsylvania, and Yale. Not the plants on the walls of the buildings

well, maybe...

No doubt redbrick can be used literally to mean 'made of red bricks' but I've never seen it used otherwise of anything other than universities.

But, pace Anu, I associate it with universities founded in the late 19th century or early 20th century. There was another round of university expansion in the 1960s but I don't think those universities are usually included in redbrick. As it happens, I've been reading David Lodge's "Changing Places", which was written in 1975 and is set in 1969:

"Rummidge, on the other hand, had never been an institution of more than middling size and reputation, and it had lately suffered the mortifying fate of most English universities of its type (civic redbrick): having competed strenuously for fifty years with two universities chiefly valued for being old, it was, at the moment of drawing level, rudely overtaken in popularity and prestige by a batch of universities chiefly valued for being new."

I would say a red brick building to describe the building material. Redbrick is a new one to me. On the other hand if someone bought a brownstone I would assume they were moving to New York, not collecting overpriced rocks.

And I've often wondered why the other colleges didn't just plant ivy and put their prices up.

We don' need no steenkeen excuses. You don' like our tuition you can go to a steenkeen community college.

While I never heard brick or redbrick in the meaning of these university matters.
This Delta here of sand, clay and peat has no natural stone. Building has first been of peat and wood, wood, then brick (baksteen)and wood, then brick and imported natural stone. Color of the bricks varies with the places where the clay was taken from.I'm not sure if now they add color to imitate the old varieties, or if they are still natural variations.

baksteen

(Faldage: steenkeen = stone keen)

baksteen Hey--in your link, all the text is in Dutch! ;-)
As to imported natural stone, call Ireland--they've got way more than they need. [another wink e]