University of Toronto

Founded in 1827, the University of Toronto (U of T), in Toronto, Ontario, is the largest university in Canada.

Academics

U of T has 75 PhD programs, and 14 professional faculties. It attracts some of the world's most renowned scholars and was ranked by The Scientist as the best place to work in academia outside the United States. Research InfoSource also ranks U of T as the top research university in Canada http://www.researchinfosource.com/top50.shtml. Over the last two decades, its faculty members have received almost a quarter of all national awards although they represent just over seven per cent of Canada's university professors.

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The great size of the university allows for a large variety of courses. Everything from Intermediate Sanskrit, to Computational Genomics, and Estonian Literature from 1700 can be taken at UofT. There are some programs that are not offered by the university. One of the most prominent absences is of any journalism program, in part because nearby Ryerson University has such a major journalism school. The size of the university also means that some classes are enormous. General introductory courses in psychology, sociology, and other subjects are taught in Convocation Hall with well over a thousand students at each lecture.

Related Topics:
Journalism - Ryerson University - Convocation Hall

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For eleven years in a row, U of T has been ranked the top medical-doctoral research university in Canada by Maclean's Magazine. In 2004, international rankings such as the Times Higher Education Supplement and the Institute of Higher Education of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked U of T 37th and 24th, respectively in the world.http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm

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Among other accomplishments, U of T-affiliated researchers developed the first electronic heart pacemaker, artificial larynx, single-lung transplant, nerve transplant, artificial pancreas, chemical laser, G-suit, built the first practical transmission electron microscope and extracted insulin.

Related Topics:
G-suit - Transmission electron microscope - Insulin

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The university's library system, based at the fourteen floor Robarts Library, is the largest in Canada and among the best in the world. The 15 million holdings in U of T's rank it fourth among North American university libraries after Harvard, Yale, and UC Berkeley. http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/scripts/index_.asp?action=31&U_ID=0&N_ID=6&P_ID=9162

Related Topics:
Robarts Library - Harvard - Yale - UC Berkeley

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U of T's endowment exceeds $1.5 billion, far larger than that of any other Canadian university. It has an operating budget of $1.1 billion, with $517 million in research and grant and contract support. The university has nearly 100 spin-off companies with over 3,000 employees and revenues of $821 million. The university itself is the 15th largest employer in the Greater Toronto Area.http://www.news.utoronto.ca/facts.asp

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Widely acknowledged to be Canada's top schoolhttp://www.macleans.ca/universities/article.jsp?content=20041104_161040_5092, U of T attracts many of the best students from Ontario and the rest of Canada, and also has a significant number of international students (over 6,000 international students or about 9% of the student population)http://www.news.utoronto.ca/facts.asp. Its student selectivity is generally thought to be high and competition is extremely intense for programs from its Medical, Dentistry, Law, Business, Architectural, and Engineering schools.

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