From the Provost’s Desk (June 2025)
The year in review
As we close out the 2024/2025 academic year, I want to thank all of you for your hard work this year. When I stepped into the Provost’s role, I set some ambitious priorities to build on U of T’s outstanding foundation in student well-being, research capacity and innovation, and our leadership in the higher education sector.
Reflecting on all that we have done over the past year, I wanted to provide you with an update on our progress, much of which is due to the tremendous effort and commitment of you, our dedicated faculty members and librarians.
We renewed student mental health and well-being as a core institutional priority, investing in training, research, community partnerships, housing solutions, and enhanced digital learning spaces. We significantly strengthened support for PhD/SJD students by increasing minimum funding packages, beginning in fall 2025. We also advanced work on an institutional AI strategy to support research, teaching, and student services as this technology becomes ever more embedded in our everyday activities. In response to increasing polarization in society and on our campuses, we will implement recommendations from the Working Group on Civil Discourse and continue to support initiatives on enhancing dialogue at the University.
Thriving Graduate and Undergraduate Students
As a psychiatrist and chair of the 2019 Student Mental Health Task Force, I am extremely proud of the ways that we are supporting student access to mental health care and accommodation at U of T. Mental health concerns now represent nearly 50% of the over 100,000 appointments delivered across our three campus health centres – amounting to over 47,000 visits in 2023/24. Of these visits, same-day counselling appointments are the primary access point for students. Under the leadership and dedication of Professor Sandy Welsh, Vice-Provost, Students and Christina Bartha, Senior Executive Director, Student Mental Health Systems, Policy and Strategy, along with their teams and colleagues, we were able to meet 93% (approximately 14,000) of the requests for same-day appointments while ensuring that the remainder of the requests were referred to an appropriate alternative option. To enhance accessibility and student success, these teams are also piloting a new process for students who require accommodation due to certain mental health issues to have rapid access to more streamlined care, using research-based interventions. Our hope is that this will alleviate some of the challenges faced by these students both in and out of the classroom, as well as decrease some of the administrative workload related to accommodation for faculty members.
We’ve moved ahead with several other developments in student services. Among these are the new Accessibility Services request-tracking system, the expansion of student mental health research initiatives through InLight, the Student-Faculty Accommodation Modules (S-FAM) in CIS and ACORN, improved outreach to international students, and onboarding of new academic divisions to the undergraduate and graduate Student Advising Service.
We’ve also allocated over $400 million in next year’s budget for financial aid and we are increasing residence spaces across our campuses – with a plan for up to 5,000 new spaces over the next ten years underway. I’m also pleased to note that the Koffler Centre renovation is on track for completion in Fall 2026, while revitalization plans have been approved for Cumberland House (the home of the Centre for International Experience), and a framework for classroom enhancements has been finalized.
Empowering Research Trainees
As I mentioned earlier, we have increased base funding for PhD and SJD students to $40,000 (inclusive of tuition), effective this coming fall – a move that will attract top talent here to U of T at a time of global change and competition. This has been truly a team effort that has been realized through the tremendous work of Vice-Provost, Graduate Research & Education and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies Joshua Barker, as well as Deans, Chairs, Directors, and individual faculty members who have all worked together to implement this important funding increase for our next generation of researchers.
The Division of University Advancement launched its PhD Scholarship Matching Program, establishing 250 new endowed awards. We also renewed our bursaries partnership with the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, expanded financial support for Black, Indigenous, and international students, and doubled the number of entrance scholarships for doctoral student researchers through a $1.3 million increase to the Connaught Fund. With the creation of the Postdoctoral Fellows Professional Development Reimbursement Fund, we are also enhancing U of T’s postdoctoral experience by covering costs for conferences, workshops, and other professional development opportunities for postdoctoral fellows. Please help us get the message out about these new opportunities by sharing with your post-docs.
Addressing challenges for research and access has been a key aim this year, and we have supported graduate research supervisors of students with disabilities, offered supervisor training workshops and research-oriented programs for prospective and current students from underrepresented groups, and expanded the tri-campus graduate professional community of practice for staff members doing this important work.
Channeling the Possibilities of AI
With the development and sophistication of generative AI exploding, we have been keeping abreast of the technology through the appointment of Assistant Vice-President and Vice-Provost, Digital Strategies Professor Susan McCahan. She and her office have been diligently working with the Provostial AI Task Force to examine and champion the ethical use of AI in teaching and learning, operations, and administration. The Task Force’s final report and recommendations were released earlier this week.
As part of her activities as Provostial Advisor on Artificial Intelligence, Prof. McCahan has been leading monthly AI Roundup sessions to provide updates on AI news, which are open to all U of T faculty members and staff. We also launched the Teaching with Generative AI at U of T website, which features resources on course design and pedagogy, U of T innovations, and training to protect privacy and security, copyright, and intellectual property. On the research side, ten of our ISIs (Institutional Strategic Initiatives) have AI as part of their mission or research questions, and an additional four have engaged in research projects that use AI.
Charting the Future of Higher Education
In early May, I accepted all of the recommendations put forth in the Final Report of the Working Group on Civil Discourse, which I encourage you to read. We will begin work immediately to address these, particularly in the areas of enhancing civil discourse education and promoting best practices.
I am very pleased that Professor Randy Boyagoda has agreed to extend his term as Provostial Advisor on Civil Discourse until December 31, 2025, to assist in implementing the recommendations. I have asked him to work with Deans and Principals across the three campuses to ensure that all entering students have a meaningful opportunity to engage in learning civil discourse skills, preferably in their first year, as well as to support the development of best practices, skills, communities of practice, events and other initiatives for students, faculty, and staff at the University.
We are keeping an eye on the lifelong learning landscape – developing OSAP-eligible micro-credential offerings and professional development courses through our ISIs and Faculties. We have begun work on a University-wide micro-credentials strategy through the work of the Provostial Advisors on Lifelong Learning, Professors Erica Walker and Catherine Chandler-Crichlow, whom I appointed in the fall.
Our work on expanding experiential learning (EL) and global citizenship opportunities for students is ongoing, with the development of several new EL initiatives, such as the Indigenous student global co-curricular experience with Maori communities, and the growth of our Global Classrooms, Global Learning Case Competition, and Global Citizenship Co-Curricular Record Pathway programs.
Finally, I am pleased that through a very productive relationship with UTFA this past year, we saw the successful renegotiation of our Memorandum of Agreement, which resulted in some significant changes that improve the dispute resolution process with clearer timelines and the involvement of Vice and Associate Deans where appropriate.
Overall, I hope you agree that it has been a very productive year at the University of Toronto, with a great deal of promising progress for the year ahead. Thanks to all who have been involved in moving these priorities forward. I am looking forward to next year and wish you all a restorative summer.
Sincerely,
Trevor