University of Toronto

The University of Toronto celebrates its 190th birthday

ullahnor — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 15:00:12 +0000

The University of Toronto celebrates its 190th birthday

ullahnor Wed, 03/15/2017 - 11:00

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U of T celebrates its 190th birthday today with cupcakes (photos by Krista Boniface)

Topic

Our Community

St. George

University of Toronto

How many U of T alumni have won the Nobel Prize? Which well-known writer attended U of T's School of Aeronautics way back in 1918? And who's the celebrity featured in a parody U of T Scarborough Instagram account?

In honour of the university's 190th birthday today, U of T Magazine has put together a quiz to test your knowledge of all things U of T. It's the kind of stuff you really ought to know.

Try the quiz

If you've come to campus in blue, white, or spirit gear, Student Life is asking folks to share how they're celebrating using the hashtag, #hbdUofT for a chance to win prizes.

Keep an eye on today's festivities

The university was founded by charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in the colony of Upper Canada. Initially controlled by the Church of England, it took on the present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution.

Today 190 years later, U of T has 12 distinct colleges, two satellite locations in Scarborough and Mississauga, more than 86,700 students and 14,000 faculty members, and it is considered a global leader in research and teaching. Recent surveys have shown U of T ranks among the top 10 in the world for student employability and ranked top 10 internationally by QS World University Rankings in six subjects.

See U.S. News & World Report ranking

Overall QS ranking

Times Higher Education ranking

The university focuses on building presence in western GTA at U of T Mississauga

ullahnor — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 20:10:40 +0000

The university focuses on building presence in western GTA at U of T Mississauga

ullahnor Tue, 03/14/2017 - 16:10

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The University of Toronto Mississauga opened in 1967 and now serves 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students (photo by Paul Orenstein)

Topic

City & Culture

Mississauga

University of Toronto

Cities

The university will continue to build its presence in the western GTA by continuing its investments at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus rather than pursuing the opportunity for a new site in Brampton.

U of T’s decision comes after extensive consultations with faculty and academic leadership in response to provincial plans for a new university site in the rapidly expanding, city of Brampton.

“We looked at it seriously, and Brampton did a good job making its case,” said Andrew Thomson, University of Toronto’s chief of government relations.

“We decided to continue focusing on providing access to the university in the western GTA through UTM. We will continue to expand our reach in the region, where implementation of many new initiatives are already underway,” he added.

The Ontario government last fall called for proposals for two new university campuses, one in Brampton and the other in Milton, as a way to increase access to higher education.

The University of Toronto opened Erindale College in 1967 with 150 students. Renamed in 1998, U of T Mississauga has been an active partner in promoting growth and opportunities in the region over the past 50 years, and now serves 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students across multiple faculties.

U of T Mississauga continues to welcome an increasing number of students from Brampton into its academic programs.

U of T President Meric Gertler talks about career success and family in Globe and Mail feature

ullahnor — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 21:06:41 +0000

U of T President Meric Gertler talks about career success and family in Globe and Mail feature

ullahnor Tue, 02/28/2017 - 16:06

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President Meric Gertler is featured in Globe and Mail series called, Halftime (photo by Christopher Wahl)

Topic

City & Culture

urban

Cities

President Meric Gertler

University of Toronto

planning

University of Toronto President Meric Gertler is featured in a Globe and Mail series called Halftime, which features people from across Canada talking about their fifth decade.

The series highlighted President Gertler's work as an internationally renowned urban planning and policy expert. He reflects on career success, family life and the importance of taking risks.

President Gertler says he could never have predicted heading U of T and taking on such a big leadership role in the academic world. He says he's glad he focused on becoming a scholar first.

“It was really important for me to achieve what I wanted to achieve as a scholar in my field and have that kind of global recognition at a certain point,” he says in the feature.

President Gertler, named a member of the Order of Canada in 2015, said success in his 40s was “feeling like my work was having some kind of impact, both in terms of the direction of my discipline, so shaping some major debates and the evolution of the field. But also having an impact in terms of public policy. To me, that has always been important.”

As a child, he developed his interest in cities because of his dad who was a planner for the City of Toronto.

“I remember looking at these very cool models of parts of the city,” he says. “One of the hot issues then, as it continues to be now, was what would the waterfront of Toronto look like in the future? There were all these futuristic, spacey models, none of which came to pass, of course. But just imagining future living environments was really exciting.”

Read about President Gertler joing the Waterfront Toronto board

What made him happy in his 40s?

“My kids, who were eight and five when I started my 40s,” he says. “They were pretty small and developing into real people, so that was a huge amount of fun. Professionally, I would say becoming recognized in the wider world. It was really in my 40s that I felt like my impact in my discipline was really registering.”

If he could go back and give himself advice two decades ago?

“I would tell myself maybe take a few more risks. I was always very cautious and careful and studied and considered. It has worked out pretty well but you always reflect on what opportunities you might have passed up by not taking a few more risks in terms of the work that you do or the activities you get involved in.”

2016 moments we loved at U of T

Romi Levine — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 16:44:01 +0000

2016 moments we loved at U of T

Romi Levine Tue, 12/20/2016 - 11:44

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U of T's Rosie MacLennan winning gold at the Rio Olympics was one of the highlights of 2016 (photo by David Ramos via Getty Images)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

University of Toronto

Research & Innovation

Citizen Lab

Summer Olympics

Subheadline

Olympic medals, pop culture royalty, jaw-dropping research and everything in between

We cheered on our Olympic athletes, made scientific breakthroughs deep in the Earth and high above the clouds, became Instagram famous and cooked up a storm.

To say 2016 has been an eventful year would be an understatement.

Here are just a few of the amazing things University of Toronto students, faculty, staff and alumni have gotten up to in the past year.

Kylie Masse wins bronze in the women's 100-metre backstroke at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The gold standard

U of T’s incredible athletes made a big impression at the Olympic Games in Rio this summer with alumna and student Rosie MacLennan successfully defending her gold in trampoline, and Varsity Blues swimmer Kylie Masse, a student in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education winning bronze in the women’s 100-metre backstroke. U of T alumna Shelley Gautier scored a bronze medal for Canada in paracycling at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Vice-President and Principal of U of T Scarborough, Bruce Kidd, an Olympian himself, said he’s incredibly proud of the athletes continuing the university’s Olympic legacy.

“It’s been thrilling to watch U of T students and alumni compete so brilliantly, courageously.”

The university's grads were once again among the world's more employable – and U of T's impact on the world stage, from ground-breaking research to innovative teaching propelled it to the top of global rankings lists.

And who can forget the incredible achievements of U of T faculty like Deborah Cowen, whose work spanning urban planning and politics, citizenship, contested spaces and social justice, earned her a prestigious Trudeau Fellowship and Professor Molly Shoichet, a world-renowned researcher and leader in the use of biomaterials to enhance stem cell delivery for treating disease conditions from stroke to blindness, who received the Till & McCulloch Award.

Twenty-five U of T researchers were named as Canada Research Chairs this year. A majority –16 of them – were women.

The Weeknd helped to raise money for the university’s efforts to create Ethiopian studies. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images for Hangout Music Festival)

A dose of pop culture

U of T earned some pop culture cred this year with two alumni starring in some of this year’s biggest TV shows – David Sutcliffe, who plays Rory’s dad on Gilmore Girls spoke to U of T News writer Geoffrey Vendeville about his time at U of T and what college he thinks his on-screen daughter would have attended.

Kim’s Convenience’s Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, reflected on his time at U of T’s drama program. He said his first year “ignited inside of me a passion for the performing arts that I’d never had before.”

We were incredibly thankful for Grammy-award winning star The Weeknd’s $50,000 donation, which will help U of T launch Ethiopian studies.

Remember Pokémon GO? Students, staff and faculty – across the three campuses – spent some of the hottest summer days glued to their phones, trying to catch the monsters that popped up on their screens. Crowds huddled around U of T PokéStops – locations where players could download items to help in their quest – and lures, stops that attracted Pokémon, and those hunting them.

U of T even made an appearance in Hello Magazine when their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway paid a visit to Hart House as part of their four-day trip to Canada. We also had a visit from the first female president of Croatia.

Mike Babcock, head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, dropped by OISE to share leadership lessons with educators.

And don’t forget about the time Drake visited the U of T Scarborough campus…well, kind of.

This map shows how genes interact in groups to shed light on the genetic roots of diseases.

Awe-inspiring research

The year began with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touring the lab of U of T's Peter Zandstra, executive director of Medicine by Design, to announce a $20-million grant to back commercialization of stem cell research by U of T and its partners. (And before the year was up, the commercialization of stem cell research was winning major backing from the private sector.)

This was a year of incredible discoveries from signs of life kilometres underground by Earth Sciences Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar to U of T research by Associate Professor Harald Pfeiffer and his team at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) playing an instrumental role in the detection of gravitational waves in space.

We even questioned whether dinosaurs were able to pucker up through research by U of T Mississauga palaeontologist Robert Reisz.

The “hacktivist hothouse” that is U of T’s Citizen Lab continued making headlines from Vanity Fair to The New York Times and CNN International about abuses of power online, including being the subject of a Canadian documentary, Black Code.

U of T’s massive project to sequence the whole genomes of 10,000 people per year will help us understand complex diseases while a new map visualizes the genetic network of a cell. And who could forget the beating heart on a chip and Canada's first hand and forearm transplant.

Scientists and environmentalists at the university took some serious steps to tackle climate change. While researchers helped to solve the puzzle of converting CO₂ emissions to fuel, experts attended the “Woodstock of carbon dioxide” to figure out how to save the planet. U of T Scarborough's Nick Eyles also explored the California drought for the CBC and researchers have discovered “superstar” varieties of rice that can reduce fertilizer loss and cut down on environmental pollution in the process.

U of T Mississauga Assistant Professor Jennifer Stellar found the power of positivity can go a long way – and it’s good for your health. Another U of T study found that an enagement ring's value drops if there's an “unhappily ever after.” But be warned, the better you feel about your partner, the higher the risk to your sexual health.

Engineering PhD student Justin Kim has built nine robots not much larger than a thumb that exhibit “swarm intelligence.” (photo by John Guatto)

Clever bots

From a swarm of tiny robots that could be used to save lives to a smartphone that could tell you if you’re having a bad hair day, students and faculty at U of T are on the front lines of innovation when it comes to robotics and artificial intelligence.

So it's not surprising that the best and brightest gathered at U of T to ponder the future of AI at the Machine Learning and the Market for Intelligence conference – including everyone’s favourite astronaut Chris Hadfield.

“The sky is not the limit," he said. "I’ve lived above the sky, and I know it’s just the start of our opportunities.”

But don’t worry, U of T experts say we don’t have to surrender to the robots just yet.

If you’re planning on belting out some carols during the holiday season, let this U of T created program help you turn your favourite photos into a jolly sing-a-long.

Hosting a New Year's Eve dinner party and want the perfect wine and cheese pairing? There’s a U of T made algorithm for that.

U of T alumni Karimah Gheddai and Shaimaa Atef are city builders to watch. (Photo by Romi Levine)

In the 6ix

Toronto Life came to U of T experts when they wanted to envision what the city would look like in 50 years. Denser and more diverse was the answer.

U of T’s mapping experts told incredible stories about Toronto’s waterways, highways, schools, access to food and jobs.

A new generation of city builders was hard at work ensuring that Toronto stays liveable as it continues to grow at warp speed.

And a group of U of T ethnographers watched the city change through the eyes of shop owners and residents in Kensington Market while a group of U of T students was busy making sure Syrian newcomers felt at home.

All three campuses kept a local focus with a new social procurement policy while cooking up some gourmet, locally-sourced food to satisfy U of T foodies.

At U of T's downtown Toronto campus, Convocation Hall played host as 500 new citizens were sworn in. Convocation ceremonies brought stars like Dick Pound, the international face of the fight against doping, and Degrassi’s Linda Schuyler to U of T.

We also had several visits by elected officials from all three levels of government such as federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Premier Kathleen Wynne, Mayor John Tory and Science Minister Kirsty Duncan.

At U of T Scarborough, The Environmental Science and Chemistry Building has been recognized as the gold standard for sustainable building design.

And, after much public consulation, the university chose a winning team to transform the downtown Toronto campus. Get ready, Toronto, for a more pedestrian-friendly campus with parking headed underground at King’s College Circle.

Do you have a favourite moment of 2016? We’d love to hear about it!

#UofTGrad16: Disabilities advocate, jazz musicians and global affairs enthusiast join U of T’s Class of 2016

ullahnor — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 22:22:34 +0000

#UofTGrad16: Disabilities advocate, jazz musicians and global affairs enthusiast join U of T’s Class of 2016

ullahnor Thu, 11/03/2016 - 18:22

Jennifer Robinson

Author legacy

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Our Community

Convocation 2016

Students

University of Toronto

When a person starts to profoundly lose their vision, there are a number of resources available to help them physically adapt – like how to navigate the city using a cane or a guide dog. But what about their mental well-being?

Kathleen Forestell from the University of Toronto’s Class of 2016 wants to ensure those resources are there.

The 29-year-old from Ottawa, who is receiving her MEd in counselling psychology from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) on Tuesday, says she believes the mental health of people undergoing dramatic life changes needs to be addressed.

Forestell wants to be an advocate for Canadians with disabilities. She is one of more than 4,600 students graduating this fall from U of T. From Nov. 7 to Nov. 9, the university will award undergrad and graduate degrees to students from all three campuses. When combined with spring convocation, U of T’s Class of 2016 is more than 18,000 strong.

Helping Forestell take her final steps as a U of T student across the stage at Convocation Hall will be her guide dog, Tiffany, a two-year-old black Labrador retriever.

“I’m going to very proud to walk across the stage with her,” she says. “I want people to see, ‘Yes, we’re here, and yes, you can do this, too!’”

Read about more of our amazingly inspiring graduates below:

The Advocate

Being a mental health advocate for people learning to live with disabilities is not an academic discussion for Forestell, it’s a lived experience. Two years ago, after moving to Toronto to pursue her postgraduate studies, her vision dramatically worsened.

“It was just like ‘great timing,’” Forestell explains.

Legally blind since birth, the former Canadian Para Alpine Ski Team World Cup racer has fearlessly zoomed down the slopes of the Matterhorn and was once clocked at 100 kilometres an hour as she crossed the finish line — relying solely on her skills, confidence and a ski guide.

With just 20 degrees of peripheral vision, she excelled as a top athlete. Losing more of that field of vision has been a staggering loss — especially as she adjusted to life in a new city and university life.

What that experience is like is complicated, she says. There’s the physical change but “you’re also dealing with loss and grief. What you’re used to experiencing is not your experience anymore. For me, there was a lot of anxiety. When I was outside, I would feel things sneaking up on me [like quiet bicycles] ... I was constantly being surprised.”

Her mother, who often came to visit, was a great emotional support and her professors at OISE found ways to accommodate her that didn’t involve vision fatigue. Recorded materials or talking books from the library helped her do research, but “the best thing ever” was the decision by one prof to allow her to give oral presentations rather than write papers.

“I had to learn how to learn again,” she says simply. “It was really challenging. I’m just glad I made it through!”

Her vision has now stabilized, and she’s moved from using a white cane to working with Tiffany as she gets out and about in the city.

She’s now job searching and looking for the right job to be an advocate for people with disabilities.

The Smooth Jazz Hands

The looseness of jazz improvisation is “like talking and having a conversation... just with instruments. It offers a lot of creativity and freedom,” says alto saxophonist Anthony Argatoff.

Graduation is fast approaching but he and fellow graduands Victor Vrankulj (jazz bass) and Andrew Miller (jazz drums) are looking towards the future and the CD release party for their avant-garde/improvised music ensemble Bellwether4 in December in Hamilton, Guelph and Toronto.

Why the Hammer and Guelph? Well, it turns out they have humming improv jazz scenes, says Argatoff. Much like where he hails from in Kelowna, B.C.

On November 7, his family will be in the office to cheer him on as he officially receives his Bachelor of Music in Performance. He’s enjoyed the four-year jazz program so much his own brother (tenor sax) is now taking it, too, as well as a growing number of fellow Kelownians.

“It’s a really special place. I’m just really grateful I came here,” says Argatoff. There is always a community of musicians at U of T ready to hang out and play “all the time” and the professors, who are professional musicians themselves, are always available to talk anytime and offer advice.

“The faculty was outstanding with lots of one-on-one opportunities,” agrees fellow fall graduand and jazz guitarist Christopher Platt, who switched to U of T after studying jazz performance at Mohawk College with Vrankulj.

For Platt (below), the path to jazz started when he first picked up a guitar at the age of 12. At first the blues had him in their grip with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan among his favourites.

“But I just wanted to consume more and more music and jazz was the next obvious step for me. I just kept going deeper down the rabbit hole,” he says, naming American jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery as a strong influence on his playing.

Now, he lists Brazilian jazz as his latest musical obsession. “So much of it is so sad and some is quite joyous. I like the sad stuff,” says Platt.

Like Argatoff, he’s focused on finding gigs through his website and has several side projects on the go with various musicians around the city.

“Toronto is the place to be in Canada [for jazz]. In the states, it would be New York... but New York just seems to be so... like Toronto on steroids,” he says with a laugh, noting a lot of people he knows have gone down to the Big Apple to test their chops. He may do it at some point, but he’s in no rush to leave the community network of musicians he’s built up here.

As for his time at U of T, “I don’t get tied to nostalgia. When it’s over, I kind of leave it in its place.”

The he adds: “I’ll miss this. You’re just consumed by music all the time. You’re constantly rehearsing and having jam sessions late into the night... You can only really get that by going to school.”

The Global Thinker

Wenjie (Shirley) Wu has got her eye on the world.

Originally from China, she’s a true citizen of the world after spending her teenage years in Japan and later moving to Canada at the age of 17.

“After living in different countries, I’m interested in how different people and countries see and interact with each other,” says the trilingual Wu who speaks Mandarin, Japanese and English.

It was that interest that drew her like a magnet to U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs two years ago. And on Monday, she officially graduates with her Master of Global Affairs, which she completed alongside the Collaborative Master’s Program in Asia-Pacific Studies.

“I really liked being here. I’ll miss our Munk school, which has such a nice environment,” says Wu, noting the impressive number of events Munk hosts where a roster of internationally respected thought leaders speak on pressing global issues.

Her time at U of T has also been filled with hanging out with fellow classmates who are passionate and engaged in their studies, as well as a dream internship at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) where she worked on the Canada desk in Washington, DC.

Although Asia has been her main area of focus in studies, her classes at Munk broadened her country interests with projects on Brazil, Bangladesh, Hungary, Mexico, Uruguay, Syria and others. At the IMF, she also had the chance to do work on Canada and Caribbean countries too.

Munk also taught her analytical methods and practical management skills with an immersion in the latest thinking on global issues, which will be crucial in launching and sustaining her career as an international policy researcher. This adds to her practical work experience in the non-profit and higher education sectors and her BA in international relations and economics earned at the University of British Columbia.

“My dream job is kind of hard to say,” she says, “but anything that involves policy research maybe in a think-tank, government organization or international organization would be great.”

For the full schedule of #UofTGrad16 convocation ceremonies, visit http://www.convocation.utoronto.ca/events.

U of T joins the city of Toronto in social procurement pledge

Romi Levine — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 16:02:51 +0000

U of T joins the city of Toronto in social procurement pledge

Romi Levine Mon, 10/24/2016 - 12:02

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Environmental Science and Chemistry building at University of Toronto Scarborough (photo by Ken Jones)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

University of Toronto

Subheadline

AnchorTO brings the city’s largest public institutions together for ‘buy local’ strategy

Nothing beats spending a sunny afternoon at a nearby farmer’s market, picking up fresh produce grown only a few kilometres away.

The “buy local” philosophy has been spreading beyond the farmer’s market to restaurants and boutiques – and now to Toronto’s public institutions like the University of Toronto.

U of T Scarborough, for example, is working with its food services provider Aramark to find ways to source local food.

“There are a tremendous number of farms around the campus,” says Andrew Arifuzzaman, chief administrative officer of U of T Scarborough. “We’ll be bringing local farms in, talking about what they need to become suppliers to Aramark.”

U of T's downtown Toronto campus already sources and buys local food. Since the campus' food services began operating in-house, those volumes have increased, according to Anne Macdonald, director of ancillary services.

In that same vein of "buying local," U of T Scarborough has also partnered with an organization called Hammer Heads, which hires local apprentices for on-campus construction projects, most recently at the Environmental Science and Chemistry building and at Highland Hall.

The university's downtown Toronto campus is now hoping to do something similar.

U of T is looking to expand its community engagement with local businesses and workers by teaming up with the Atkinson Foundation and anchor institutions such as the City of Toronto and public sector organizations like the TTC, Ryerson University and Toronto Public Library. Anchor institutions are public or non-profit organizations rooted in their community, hence the name of the initiative, AnchorTO.

Along with U of T, 13 institutions have signed on, pledging to research and create a plan for sourcing and utilizing local goods and services – a practice called social procurement.

“It is to our benefit to ensure that the community is as successful as it can be because it’s essentially a symbiotic relationship,” says Sheila Brown, U of T’s chief financial officer.

For U of T’s Director of Procurement Services Renata Faverin, it’s important that AnchorTO takes a collaborative approach to procurement.

“It’s about working on projects and identifying ways, always within our regulations, to encourage participation and further economic development for our disadvantaged communities, our smaller suppliers,” she says.

Implementing new procurement strategies will be complicated, guided by the legal framework already in place, says Brown.

“We must do everything in accordance to the current rules, which are complex, and the current rules in Ontario,” she says.

Arifuzzaman believes all that hard work pays off for the university and the community at large. That's what he hopes will happen in Scarborough.

“Creating opportunities for local suppliers makes Scarborough more attractive to live work and play,” he says. “It creates a whole system – a micro ecosystem of economic growth and prosperity.”

Other Toronto organizations signed on to AnchorTO:

Atkinson Foundation
City of Toronto
Centennial College
George Brown College
Metrolinx
Ryerson University
Seneca College
Toronto Public Library
Toronto Transit Commission
Toronto Community Housing
United Way Toronto and York Region
University of Toronto
University of Toronto Scarborough

Improving student mental health: Q & A with Professor Catherine Sabiston

ullahnor — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 20:01:43 +0000

Improving student mental health: Q & A with Professor Catherine Sabiston

ullahnor Wed, 09/28/2016 - 16:01

Katie Babcock

Author legacy

Katie Babcock

Topic

University of Toronto

U of T

Students

Professor Catherine Sabiston at U of T’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education believes the key to a province-wide mental health strategy lies in well-designed physical activity and wellness programs.

Sabiston conducts research at U of T’s Mental Health and Physical Activity Research Centre (MPARC), one of the first research facilities in Canada to integrate the study of physical activity and mental health. She has designed student-led physical activity programs – resulting in long-term, convenient, cost-effective and preventative measures for better health and well-being.

With the Ontario University and College Health Association's survey this week finding a rise in rates of anxiety, depression and suicide attempts among college and university students across Ontario, Sabiston talked about the issue and her research.

Why are rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts increasing among university students?

University students are facing increasing pressures to succeed, and they ultimately have a fear of failure. This is the first time that many of these young adults have dealt with independent responsibilities and goals. In addition, many students have lifestyle habits that are not conducive to restorative mental health, including poor sleep, less exercise and sub-par diets. These behaviours have known negative effects on mental health, yet they are not recognized in the bigger picture of academic success.

Also, students face changing social environments – different peers in a wide range of classes, group assignments that require dependence on others, changes in friendships and autonomy from family. These social challenges can contribute to poor mental health. In this age of social media the immediacy and overload of information, combined with the stress of academia, also weigh heavily on students.

What kind of support does MPARC offer?

MPARC offers two separate programs to help students increase their physical activity, learn self-regulation skills and monitor their lifestyles. MoveU.HappyU is a six-week supervised exercise program for students who are seeking relief from high levels of stress, negative moods and worry. Students can be referred by health and wellness clinicians and can start the program at any time.

We also offer a program called Secondary Prevention and Rehabilitation Kinesiology (SPARK). This is a 12-week program offered twice a year for students who are on medication for depression and/or anxiety, and who are followed by a clinician at U of T’s Health and Wellness Centre. This program also offers supervised exercise and behavioural counselling. Both programs are offered at convenient times and at a central location, and they set students up for long-term success – the programs ultimately help students feel confident in using the university's fitness facilities.

What has your research shown so far?

We have had 22 students complete the MoveU.HappyU program during our pilot year. Over 70 per cent of the students felt that the program met their needs, and the majority rated the program as “highly enjoyable, interesting and of high importance.” Importantly, many students felt they did not need psychological services beyond the program. Our findings also show that anxiety and depression symptoms decreased, and students felt they had more emotional control.

Positive mood and life satisfaction increased over the six-week MoveU.HappyU program. These findings are encouraging and demonstrate the immediacy of the effects of physical activity on mental health. The SPARK program has just started and the first group of students will be completing the program this fall.

How could the MPARC approach be extended to a province-wide strategy?

This program could easily work in other universities across Ontario and Canada. We have program materials, and we also have strategies for training physical activity program ambassadors and behavioural counselling specialists. Students could use the universities’ sport and recreation spaces, and universities could support this kind of programming by offering dedicated hours for mental health programs. This would be a cost-effective, feasible and sustainable way to reduce the burden on health, wellness and psychological services on campuses.

TO Health! builds online health sciences hub in Toronto

Romi Levine — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 17:40:53 +0000

TO Health! builds online health sciences hub in Toronto

Romi Levine Mon, 09/12/2016 - 13:40

Cutline

Vice-President Research and Innovation Vivek Goel is co-chair of TO Health! (Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

Health

Toronto

University of Toronto

Public Health

Innovation

Research and Innovation

Vivek Goel

Subheadline

U of T’s VP research and innovation, Vivek Goel, announced as co-chair of the organization

Boosting Toronto’s reputation as a leader in health sciences means bringing the industry online.

That’s according to TO Health!, an industry-led organization that looks to strengthen the city’s health sciences “cluster.”

Clusters are geographical regions where certain sectors (like technology, culture or finance) are thriving thanks to an interconnected web of private and public sector groups.

U of T has flagship role in Ontario post-secondary education, says provincial report

lavende4 — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 14:20:37 +0000

U of T has flagship role in Ontario post-secondary education, says provincial report

lavende4 Tue, 07/12/2016 - 10:20

Topic

Our Community

Post-secondary education

Ontario

University of Toronto

Meric Gertler

HEQCO

The University of Toronto has a “powerful flagship role” to play as Ontario’s one internationally ranked top-tier university, says a new report by the provincial agency dedicated to improving the quality of higher education.

The new report by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario takes stock of provincial efforts to establish clear distinctions among the province’s 20 universities and recommends further action to differentiate the research and teaching efforts of individual schools.

The Ontario government has made differentiation a key policy, negotiating strategic mandate agreements in 2014 with institutions that ask them to identify factors that make them unique in the system.

The new report urges the Ontario government to “move strongly and boldly” to encourage greater differences among schools, and singles out U of T as an important resource for the whole province. Having a top-tier university, “reflects well on the entire system and, like a rising tide, lifts all boats,” the report finds.

Read the HEQCO report here

U of T president Meric Gertler welcomed the report’s findings.

“This analysis confirms U of T’s flagship position within the Ontario system, as an institution of research and teaching that is recognized around the world,” he said. “We need to do all we can to attract the best minds to our campuses, to provide the best learning environment to our students and give them the kinds of opportunities that prepare them well for lifelong success. This report acknowledges that a one-size-fits-all funding model makes it increasingly difficult for us to deliver on this commitment.”

The report recommends “seizing the opportunity to restructure funding and enrolment expectations to ensure that Toronto continues to be able to play its unique and powerful flagship role for Ontario.”

In addition to U of T, the report singles out six other “research-intensive” universities, and groups four others as “in-between” or regional institutions. Nine others it describes as “mostly undergraduate” institutions that emphasize teaching and learning.

It concludes that “the most promising strategy is to concentrate research resources – infrastructure, sponsored funding and graduate education – into the already more research-intensive universities that attract the greatest student demand.”

The new report also looks at differences in the “teaching mission” of individual universities using measures such as equity of access, graduate outcomes and demand. It concludes that schools that serve student bodies with more complex needs should get the support needed to meet that demand.

“In a differentiated system, institutions build on their areas of expertise, allowing each to make its optimal contribution,” HEQCO president and CEO Harvey Weingarten said in a statement. “Ontario has the opportunity to show international leadership in building a postsecondary system that is more cohesive, more sustainable and of higher quality.”

The report cautions that the distinctions it makes are not a form of ranking. “Differentiation describes how institutions are different, not which are better,” it states.

In a time of budget restraint, the report sees differentiation as a way to increase choice, leverage institutional strengths and avoid expensive duplication. “Differentiation is a strategy for spending existing resources with greater impact and better outcomes,” it states. At the same time, it is critical of the provincial funding formula that is based on per student funding and as such only rewards enrolment growth.

Such a standardized approach is the “conventional default in public-sector funding schemes,” because it is easy to administer and easy to defend as fair, but “is not a particularly powerful approach to driving differentiation,” it finds.

The report, ‘The Differentiation of the Ontario University System: Where are we now and where should we go?” was written by Martin Hicks and Linda Jonker and builds on the research done by HEQCO on this topic over the past six years. HEQCO was created by the Ontario government more than a decade ago to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system and provide policy recommendations to the province.

Competition looks into St. George campus renewal

sgupta — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 15:02:00 +0000

Competition looks into St. George campus renewal sgupta Mon, 09/21/2015 - 11:02

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Competition looks into St. George campus renewal