With more than 16,500 faculty, over 700 undergraduate programs and more than 97,600 students on three campuses, the University of Toronto is in a class of its own. St. George, the leafy downtown campus, has historic stone buildings alongside sleek modern architecture and the west-end Mississauga campus borders on protected greenbelt land. The 300-acre Scarborough campus sits next to Highland Creek in the city’s east end.

Given U of T’s size, one might think professors would be too busy for undergraduates, but the university fosters small-group learning opportunities, such as first-year seminars. The university also supports student start up companies, and aspiring entrepreneurs can grow their ideas through over a dozen accelerators and more than 200 courses. The Scarborough campus offers co-op in all of its program areas.

In 2022, U of T implemented a new model for mental health services that aims to get students the help they need faster and in ways that address individual needs, and it recently expanded its chat-based virtual assistant, Navi. “The university has worked hard to make sure graduates are equipped with both the academic credentials and the core competencies they need to succeed,” says president Meric Gertler. Research is also a significant focus at the university, with $1.4 billion in sponsored research funding going to U of T and partner hospitals and 330 Canada research chairs. Meanwhile, U of T’s School of Cities brings together researchers from across disciplines to address the challenges facing urban areas.

Campus Buzz

Updates to the historic quad at the centre of St. George campus make it a greener, more accessible and pedestrian-friendly space, while underneath it lies Canada’s largest urban geoexchange system, which is estimated to reduce the school’s greenhouse gas emissions by 15,000 metric tonnes per year.