The St George Campus of the University of Toronto with CN Tower in background
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada. Originally controlled by the Church of England, the university assumed its present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution. As a collegiate university, it comprises 11 colleges each with substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs and significant differences in character and history. The university maintains three campuses, the oldest of which is St. George, located in downtown Toronto. The other two satellite campuses are located in Scarborough and Mississauga.
The University of Toronto offers over 700 undergraduate and 200 graduate programs. The university receives the most annual scientific research funding and endowment of any Canadian university. It is also one of two members of the Association of American Universities outside the United States, alongside McGill University.[12] Academically, the University of Toronto is noted for influential movements and curricula in literary criticism and communication theory, known collectively as the Toronto School.
The university was the birthplace of insulin,[13] stem cell research,[14] the first artificial cardiac pacemaker,[15] and the site of the first successful lung transplant and nerve transplant. The university was also home to the first electron microscope, the development of deep learning,[16] neural network, multi-touch technology, the identification of the first black hole Cygnus X-1, and the development of the theory of NP-completeness. The University of Toronto is the recipient of both the single largest philanthropic gift in Canadian history, a $250 million donation from James and Louise Temerty in 2020, and the largest ever research grant in Canada, a $200 million grant from the Government of Canada in 2023.[17][18]
The Varsity Blues are the athletic teams that represent the university in intercollegiate league matches, primarily within U Sports, with ties to gridiron football, rowing and ice hockey. The earliest recorded instance of gridiron football occurred at University of Toronto's University College in November 1861.[19] The university's Hart House is an early example of the North American student centre, simultaneously serving cultural, intellectual, and recreational interests within its large Gothic-revival complex.
University of Toronto alumni include five Prime Ministers of Canada (including William Lyon Mackenzie King and Lester B. Pearson), three Governors General of Canada, nine foreign leaders, and 17 justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.[20] As of 2024, 13 Nobel laureates, six Turing Award winners, 100 Rhodes Scholars, and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with the university.
History
Early history
The founding of a colonial college had long been the desire of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada and founder of York, the colonial capital.[21][22] As an Oxford-educated military commander who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, Simcoe believed a college was needed to counter the spread of republicanism from the United States.[22] The Upper Canada Executive Committee recommended in 1798 that a college be established in York.[22]
Charter granted by King George IV in 1827, establishing King's College.
On March 15, 1827, a royal charter was formally issued by King George IV, proclaiming "from this time one College, with the style and privileges of a University ... for the education of youth in the principles of the Christian Religion, and for their instruction in the various branches of Science and Literature ... to continue for ever, to be called King's College."[23] The granting of the charter was largely the result of intense lobbying by John Strachan, the influential future first Anglican Bishop of Toronto who took office as the college's first president.[23][24] The original three-storey Greek Revival school building was built on the present site of Queen's Park.[25][26][27]
Under Strachan's stewardship, King's College was a religious institution closely aligned with the Church of England and the British colonial elite, known as the Family Compact.[28] Reformist politicians opposed the clergy's control over colonial institutions and fought to have the college secularized.[29] In 1849, after a lengthy and heated debate, the newly elected responsible government of the Province of Canada voted to rename King's College as the University of Toronto and severed the school's ties with the church.[24] Having anticipated this decision, the enraged Strachan had resigned a year earlier to open Trinity College as a private Anglican seminary.[30] University College was created as the nondenominational teaching branch of the University of Toronto. During the American Civil War, the threat of Union blockade on British North America prompted the creation of the University Rifle Corps, which saw battle in resisting the Fenian raids on the Niagara border in 1866.[31] The Corps was part of the Reserve Militia led by professor Henry Croft.[31]
Painting of University College, 1859.
Established in 1878, the School of Practical Science was the precursor to the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, which has been nicknamed Skule since its earliest days.[32] While the Faculty of Medicine opened in 1843, medical teaching was conducted by proprietary schools from 1853 until 1887 when the faculty absorbed the Toronto School of Medicine.[33] Meanwhile, the university continued to set examinations and confer medical degrees.[33] The university opened the Faculty of Law in 1887, followed by the Faculty of Dentistry in 1888 when the Royal College of Dental Surgeons became an affiliate.[24] Women were first admitted to the university in 1884.[34]
A devastating fire in 1890 gutted the interior of University College and destroyed 33,000 volumes from the library,[35] but the university restored the building and replenished its library within two years.[35] Over the next two decades, a collegiate system took shape as the university arranged federation with several ecclesiastical colleges, including Strachan's Trinity College in 1904. The university operated the Royal Conservatory of Music from 1896 to 1991 and the Royal Ontario Museum from 1912 to 1968; both still retain close ties with the university as independent institutions.[36][37] The University of Toronto Press was founded in 1901 as Canada's first academic publishing house.[38] The Faculty of Forestry, founded in 1907 with Bernhard Fernow as dean, was Canada's first university faculty devoted to forest science. In 1910, the Faculty of Education opened its laboratory school, the University of Toronto Schools.
The St George Campus of the University of Toronto with CN Tower in background
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada. Originally controlled by the Church of England, the university assumed its present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution. As a collegiate university, it comprises 11 colleges each with substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs and significant differences in character and history. The university maintains three campuses, the oldest of which is St. George, located in downtown Toronto. The other two satellite campuses are located in Scarborough and Mississauga.
The University of Toronto offers over 700 undergraduate and 200 graduate programs. The university receives the most annual scientific research funding and endowment of any Canadian university. It is also one of two members of the Association of American Universities outside the United States, alongside McGill University.[12] Academically, the University of Toronto is noted for influential movements and curricula in literary criticism and communication theory, known collectively as the Toronto School.
The university was the birthplace of insulin,[13] stem cell research,[14] the first artificial cardiac pacemaker,[15] and the site of the first successful lung transplant and nerve transplant. The university was also home to the first electron microscope, the development of deep learning,[16] neural network, multi-touch technology, the identification of the first black hole Cygnus X-1, and the development of the theory of NP-completeness. The University of Toronto is the recipient of both the single largest philanthropic gift in Canadian history, a $250 million donation from James and Louise Temerty in 2020, and the largest ever research grant in Canada, a $200 million grant from the Government of Canada in 2023.[17][18]
The Varsity Blues are the athletic teams that represent the university in intercollegiate league matches, primarily within U Sports, with ties to gridiron football, rowing and ice hockey. The earliest recorded instance of gridiron football occurred at University of Toronto's University College in November 1861.[19] The university's Hart House is an early example of the North American student centre, simultaneously serving cultural, intellectual, and recreational interests within its large Gothic-revival complex.
University of Toronto alumni include five Prime Ministers of Canada (including William Lyon Mackenzie King and Lester B. Pearson), three Governors General of Canada, nine foreign leaders, and 17 justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.[20] As of 2024, 13 Nobel laureates, six Turing Award winners, 100 Rhodes Scholars, and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with the university.
History
Early history
The founding of a colonial college had long been the desire of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada and founder of York, the colonial capital.[21][22] As an Oxford-educated military commander who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, Simcoe believed a college was needed to counter the spread of republicanism from the United States.[22] The Upper Canada Executive Committee recommended in 1798 that a college be established in York.[22]
Charter granted by King George IV in 1827, establishing King's College.
On March 15, 1827, a royal charter was formally issued by King George IV, proclaiming "from this time one College, with the style and privileges of a University ... for the education of youth in the principles of the Christian Religion, and for their instruction in the various branches of Science and Literature ... to continue for ever, to be called King's College."[23] The granting of the charter was largely the result of intense lobbying by John Strachan, the influential future first Anglican Bishop of Toronto who took office as the college's first president.[23][24] The original three-storey Greek Revival school building was built on the present site of Queen's Park.[25][26][27]
Under Strachan's stewardship, King's College was a religious institution closely aligned with the Church of England and the British colonial elite, known as the Family Compact.[28] Reformist politicians opposed the clergy's control over colonial institutions and fought to have the college secularized.[29] In 1849, after a lengthy and heated debate, the newly elected responsible government of the Province of Canada voted to rename King's College as the University of Toronto and severed the school's ties with the church.[24] Having anticipated this decision, the enraged Strachan had resigned a year earlier to open Trinity College as a private Anglican seminary.[30] University College was created as the nondenominational teaching branch of the University of Toronto. During the American Civil War, the threat of Union blockade on British North America prompted the creation of the University Rifle Corps, which saw battle in resisting the Fenian raids on the Niagara border in 1866.[31] The Corps was part of the Reserve Militia led by professor Henry Croft.[31]
Painting of University College, 1859.
Established in 1878, the School of Practical Science was the precursor to the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, which has been nicknamed Skule since its earliest days.[32] While the Faculty of Medicine opened in 1843, medical teaching was conducted by proprietary schools from 1853 until 1887 when the faculty absorbed the Toronto School of Medicine.[33] Meanwhile, the university continued to set examinations and confer medical degrees.[33] The university opened the Faculty of Law in 1887, followed by the Faculty of Dentistry in 1888 when the Royal College of Dental Surgeons became an affiliate.[24] Women were first admitted to the university in 1884.[34]
A devastating fire in 1890 gutted the interior of University College and destroyed 33,000 volumes from the library,[35] but the university restored the building and replenished its library within two years.[35] Over the next two decades, a collegiate system took shape as the university arranged federation with several ecclesiastical colleges, including Strachan's Trinity College in 1904. The university operated the Royal Conservatory of Music from 1896 to 1991 and the Royal Ontario Museum from 1912 to 1968; both still retain close ties with the university as independent institutions.[36][37] The University of Toronto Press was founded in 1901 as Canada's first academic publishing house.[38] The Faculty of Forestry, founded in 1907 with Bernhard Fernow as dean, was Canada's first university faculty devoted to forest science. In 1910, the Faculty of Education opened its laboratory school, the University of Toronto Schools.