From the Provost’s Desk (April 2025)

The importance of student enrolment

As I am sure you all know by now, Professor Melanie Woodin, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science, has been announced as our next President. I am delighted that I will be able to work alongside her as U of T enters its third century and look forward to her leadership at this incredibly important time in our history. I hope you will all join me in congratulating Professor Woodin on her appointment – and in thanking Professor Meric Gertler for his outstanding leadership of the University for more than a decade.

At this time of year, if you have family or friends with high-school-aged children, you know that we are deep in university admissions season. Attracting and admitting the best and brightest students in a breadth of subject areas is central to the academic mission of the University of Toronto. I thought it would be a good time to share a bit about this important process – how these students get to us, how providing an excellent undergraduate and graduate education is at the core of our institutional purpose, and what the relationship is between student enrolment and research, innovation, and academic sustainability at U of T.

Our recruitment and admissions processes are intense and wide-ranging. In 2024, U of T’s undergraduate recruitment teams visited 50 countries and regions, including 10 Canadian provinces and 19 U.S. states. Combined, they held over 2,200 events – including many in our local communities across the GTA – several of which were supported by faculty, staff, current students, and alumni from across our tri-campus community. These efforts are crucial to raising awareness of U of T’s stellar academic, scholarship, and financial aid offerings, and allow us to build relationships with outstanding students and excellent schools around the world. Once offers of admission go out, members of our tri-campus and divisional recruitment teams work to engage with admitted students and their supporters, virtually and in-person, to answer questions, provide guidance, and encourage these students to accept their offers. Such activities support the University in meeting our projected enrolment targets, which are determined in large part by provincial funding agreements (known as Strategic Mandate Agreements, or SMAs).

Under these SMAs, each university in Ontario receives funding from the provincial government on a per-student basis for domestic enrolments (Canadian citizens and permanent residents). And each institution has negotiated what the government calls an “enrolment corridor,” which establishes a cap on the number of domestic students who will qualify for provincial funding to the university. Our domestic enrolment targets are generally based on this corridor – if we fall below it, we leave a certain amount of money on the proverbial table, and if we exceed it, we gain no extra government funding for the additional students.[1]

As I mentioned in my February email, Ontario universities have been subject to six consecutive years of a domestic tuition freeze for Ontario students, which was preceded by a 10-percent tuition cut. During this period, our costs have continued to rise. Because we have a long-standing commitment to attracting excellent international students to our campuses, our international enrolment has been helping to mitigate the impact of the freeze.

Last year, however, the federal government imposed a cap on international student study permits. Subsequently, our enrolment numbers for fall 2024 showed a 6% decline in international intake – a drop that was not nearly as precipitous as at other institutions, likely due to a combination of our global reputation, diversification strategy, investments in scholarships, and high admission standards. Given the caps and this decline in international uptake, we are forecasting only minimal growth (if any) in international enrolment going forward.

This means that U of T must ensure that we retain the students who are already here and successfully meet our growth targets for domestic enrolment. Student tuition and fees along with government operating grants (determined by our SMA) are an important part of our budget planning. Robust enrolment thus informs our decisions about growth, allowing us to continue to offer and expand our academic programs, invest in world-class research, hire new faculty, revitalize our facilities, and meet our compensation obligations. Our purpose as an institution of higher learning is to foster the knowledge and critical thinking that will enable our societies to thrive. Recruiting and enrolling the best undergraduate students is critical to achieve that goal. In providing these students with best education, we must engage in groundbreaking research, student-centred teaching, and innovative approaches to the challenges of our times.

As faculty members and librarians, the excellence you bring to your work in teaching and research drives our enrolment. I can’t underscore enough the importance of your dedication to the student experience – whether that’s in the classroom, through laboratory research, or in creating a welcoming environment in which our students can thrive. Thank you for all that you do to enable us to grow, teach, and learn together. This allows us – with the help of our superb recruitment and admissions staff – to keep attracting amazing students to U of T, and to continue to build on our world-class reputation for research, innovation, and academic excellence.  

Best regards,
Trevor

[1] Note that this corridor-based funding is not the only determinant of funding but does account for a significant portion.