June 25, 1987
To request an official copy of this policy, contact:
The Office of the Governing Council
Room 106, Simcoe Hall
27 King's College Circle
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 1A1
Phone: 416-978-6576
Fax: 416-978-8182
E-mail: governing.council@utoronto.ca
Website: http://www.utoronto.ca/govcncl/
Foreign students are an essential feature of the University of Toronto's participation in international scholarship. They contribute to the international character of the University's research, and provide opportunities for the international transmission of knowledge through its teaching programs. The presence of outstanding students from all parts of the world in the University's undergraduate and graduate, professional, and research programs, helps to achieve the excellence the University seeks to assure for all its activities. On the University's campuses foreign students also make an important and positive contribution to the cultural life of the community and create lasting relationships of benefit to individuals as well as to the institution and the country generally. And finally, by enrolling foreign students the University of Toronto, as a now mature university in a well-developed country, has an opportunity to share its educational resources with less well developed countries whose institutions are still evolving.
In light of these considerations, the Governing Council has adopted the Policy on Foreign Students that commits the University to enrolling a broad mix of foreign students in its programs, and that articulates the basic principles that will guide their admission to the University, arrangements for their financial support, right of access to academic courses and programs, and the provision of services to address their particular needs.
- The University of Toronto welcomes foreign students into all of its programs;
- Academic merit is the primary criterion for admission of foreign students to the University of Toronto;
- Faculties, Schools, Colleges, Departments, Centres and Institutes of the University of Toronto should enrol foreign students from as many different countries as possible, consistent with 2 above;
- The University of Toronto recognizes that as a result of cultural differences, financial burdens and legal constraints, many foreign students have special needs. These needs should be taken into account in all University academic divisions;
- The University of Toronto should mitigate, wherever possible the financial constraints which inhibit attraction and enrolment of outstanding foreign student applicants;
- A foreign student once admitted to a University of Toronto degree program will have access to courses required to complete that program on the same basis as all other students.
