President Gertler

Health and safety remain key for fall semester, President Gertler says

lanthierj — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 17:52:19 +0000

Health and safety remain key for fall semester, President Gertler says

lanthierj Tue, 07/14/2020 - 13:52

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(photo by Diana Tyszko)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Our Community

Coronavirus

��Ƶ

President Gertler

Now that academic divisions have posted their course offerings for fall, students have a clearer picture of what life at the University of Toronto will look like in September – with health and safety of the community remaining the top priority.

Almost all undergraduate courses will have online elements, while one-third of undergraduate courses will also offer in-person opportunities for connection through instruction, tutorials, labs and experiential learning, the university announced today.

“The University’s first priority remains the health and safety of our entire community,” President Meric Gertler said in an update to faculty, staff and librarians.

“More than 90 per cent of our undergraduate course offerings will feature online (synchronous or asynchronous) delivery,” President Gertler said. “At the same time, many of these same courses will offer a significant in-person element – either through ‘dual delivery’ mode (in which students have the option of enrolling online or in-person), or through in-person classes, labs, tutorials or experiential learning placements.

“At this stage we can report that, overall, at least one-third of our undergraduate courses will have an in-person component. In some divisions, more than half of course offerings will include an in-person option.”

Across the three campuses, faculty, librarians, and staff have spent months preparing for a fall term that will combine what the president called “an unyielding commitment to safety” with “the high-quality academic experience for which U of T is so widely respected.”

The result, President Gertler said, is “consistent with our earlier commitment to offer a rich mix of learning opportunities and formats, combining online and in-person modes of delivery.”

With the province planning to move into Stage Three of its planned reopening, U of T will also be entering a new phase in its response to the pandemic. ��Ƶ 2020: A Roadmap for the University of Toronto sets out many of the processes and protocols U of T is following. Its development has been guided by the staged reopening principles from the Province of Ontario.

Addressing COVID-19’s impact on university research labs, President Gertler said many researchers were able to continue their work without interruption since the spring. Labs that were unable to continue have begun reopening, following a process that complies with public health directives, and institutional principles and guidelines.

“I am grateful to our faculty, staff and students who have worked so diligently to ensure a safe, orderly and successful reopening,” he added.

Many U of T researchers applied their ingenuity and talent to questions related to COVID-19, whether to develop diagnostic tools, aid vaccine development or produce mathematical models to predict the spread of the disease. U of T created an action fund in May to support high-impact research on COVID-19.

President Gertler also announced in his letter that a new Response and Adaptation Committee – a small and dedicated group led by Professor Vivek Goel – will be taking the reins of the university’s operational response from the Incident Leadership Team that steered the university through the challenging first few months of the pandemic.

Goel stepped down from his role as vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives to devote more time to U of T’s COVID-19 response as a special adviser to U of T’s vice-president and provost. He was the co-lead with Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr of the incident leadership team.

“On behalf of the entire U of T community, I would like to thank Professor Regehr, Professor Goel and all the members of the ILT for their dedication and exemplary accomplishments in service to the University during this unprecedented time,” Gertler wrote.

As the university takes unprecedented steps for a safe and smooth start to the new academic year, President Gertler thanked students, faculty, librarians, staff and students for their “leadership, perseverance and creativity” in the face of extraordinary challenges.

“I am confident that, by continuing to work together, we will ensure a healthy, safe, and successful start to the new academic year in September,” he said.

Visit U-Together for more on the fall semester

U of T hosts Trudeau, Ukrainian president for international conference on Ukraine’s future

geoff.vendeville — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 20:09:57 +0000

U of T hosts Trudeau, Ukrainian president for international conference on Ukraine’s future

geoff.vendeville Thu, 07/04/2019 - 16:09

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signs U of T's guest book while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U of T President Meric Gertler look on (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Global Lens

Slavic languages and literatures

World leaders, diplomats and other officials gathered at the University of Toronto this week as the university hosted the ministerial meeting at an international summit on the future of Ukraine.

A succession of delegations arrived at Simcoe Hall on the downtown Toronto campus on Tuesday morning, representing over 30 countries at the U of T-hosted portion of the three-day Ukraine Reform Conference. It was the third annual meeting to set the agenda for reform in Ukraine after conferences in London and Copenhagen.

U of T President Meric Gertler greeted the dignitaries, which included recently elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is of Ukrainian descent and delivered part of her opening remarks in Convocation Hall in Ukrainian.

President Gertler said it was an honour for U of T to host the high-profile meeting.

“It is a great privilege to welcome world leaders and to facilitate their discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing not only Ukraine, but the whole world,” he said.

“The University of Toronto strives to foster an international outlook among all members of our community, and to serve as a convenor of global conversations on the most important issues of our time. U of T, therefore, is an ideal setting for this event, which is devoted to democratic ideals and universal concerns.”

The conference included panel discussions that took place inside U of T’s Convocation Hall (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Freeland, for her part, lauded U of T for hosting global summits like the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting last year and this year’s Ukraine Reform Conference.

“Universities occupy an essential space in our society by promoting research, innovation and debate,” she said. “The University of Toronto is a premier international institution of higher learning that connects Canada to the world – and vice versa.

“I am continuously struck by the energy and ambition of students at U of T. They rightly see themselves as global citizens and have bold ideas for how Canada can play a constructive role in the world today.”

In her remarks to the conference, Freeland said, “Ukrainians were prepared to pay the ultimate price for their freedom, and many did,” referring to protesters who died in Kiev’s Maidan square in 2014.

She went on to denounce Russian aggression in Ukraine and the 2014 invasion of the Crimean Peninsula. Many countries, including Canada, also accuse Russia of fomenting an insurgency in the eastern part of the country in which 13,000 people have died. And in November, the Russian navy captured 24 Ukrainian sailors. Moscow accuses them of illegally entering Russia waters, although Kiev denies the allegation.

“Let me say to the people of Ukraine who are here today and those who are listening to us that Canada continues to stand with you,” Freeland said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy peppered his speech with sports references, including to Wayne Gretzky, who has Ukrainian ancestry, and the Toronto Raptors (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

The first day of the conference featured panel discussions on sovereignty, security and prosperity and transforming Ukraine into a high-income country. Much of the talk focused on making progress in Ukraine “irreversible,” with a long-term possibility of the country entering the European Union.

The conference comes at a pivotal moment for Ukraine. Zelenskyy, an actor-comedian, beat the odds to win the presidency in April and parliamentary elections are to be held later this month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Speaking in Convocation Hall, bedecked with flags and lit up in the blue and yellow of Ukraine, Trudeau also pledged Canada’s support for the country in Eastern Europe.

“It is absolutely vital that, in the face of foreign interference, we reinforce democracy in Ukraine to ensure a vibrant, prosperous and free society,” he said.

To that end, Ottawa announced more than $45 million in development aid and policing assistance for Ukraine and said it won’t recognize Russian passports issued to Ukrainians in the Donbas, a region in eastern Ukraine and southwestern Russia.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U of T President Meric Gertler (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

In his own speech, Zelenskyy compared his country to the championship-winning Toronto Raptors.

“Basketball isn’t exactly my game,” Zelenskyy joked. The Raptors “reflect the task facing Ukraine – to win when you’re the underdog and achieve the impossible,” he said in Ukrainian, which was translated live.

The conference’s delegates pose for a group photo (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Aurel Braun, a professor of international relations and political science at U of T Mississauga, who specializes in the challenges of transformation of socialist systems in the former Soviet bloc, says one of Ukraine’s top priorities going forward will be to address corruption.

“Ukraine is a potentially wealthy country,” he said. “It has tremendous human talent, including scientific talent. It has vast natural resources – and yet it is desperately poor, and corruption has been one of the key elements.”

He added that the location of the conference is fitting both because Canada is home to 1.3 million Ukrainians and because U of T has a “glorious tradition” in Slavic studies.

“We were among the first universities to develop a major centre for Russian and east European studies,” he said.

U of T leads Canadian universities, ranks among top institutions worldwide in QS World University Rankings

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 14:00:10 +0000

U of T leads Canadian universities, ranks among top institutions worldwide in QS World University Rankings

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 06/19/2019 - 10:00

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(photo by Laura Pedersen)

Topic

QS World University Rankings

Rankings

A stellar academic reputation helped secure the University of Toronto’s position as one of the top post-secondary institutions in the world in the latest QS World University Rankings.

The prestigious annual list, published by higher education firm Quacquarelli Symonds, ranked U of T first in Canada and 29^th out of more than 1,000 universities worldwide.

Among public institutions, meanwhile, U of T ranked 18^th globally and third in North America.

“The University of Toronto is grateful to be recognized once again as one of the top academic institutions in the world,” said U of T President Meric Gertler.

“It is a reflection of our commitment to excellence as a leading institution of research and learning.”

The QS World University Rankings is based on six measures: academic reputation, employer reputation, international student and faculty scores, a faculty-student ratio score and a citations-faculty score.

U of T, which was 28^th globally in the same ranking last year, achieved some of its highest marks in the academic and employer reputation measures. The university rose one spot to 17^th globally in the academic reputation measure this year, and eight spots, to 27^th from 35^th, in employer reputation.

Six other Canadian universities were in QS’s top 200 this year. They include McGill University, which ranked 35^th and the University of British Columbia, which ranked 51^st.

The top-ranked university on this year’s list was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In the QS World University Subject Rankings earlier this year, U of T held the top spot nationally for five broad subject areas and ranked in the top 10 globally for six subjects.

In the Times Higher Education ranking, U of T leads Canadian universities and is one of only eight universities in the world to place in the top 50 across 11 subjects.

U of T continues to be the highest ranked Canadian university and one of the world’s top-ranked public universities in the five principal international rankings: Times Higher Education, QS World Rankings, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, U.S. News Best Global Universities and National Taiwan University.

'A really pivotal player': President Meric Gertler on U of T's contribution to Toronto's booming tech scene

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 24 May 2019 14:19:38 +0000

'A really pivotal player': President Meric Gertler on U of T's contribution to Toronto's booming tech scene

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 05/24/2019 - 10:19

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U of T President Meric Gertler underscored the university’s role in supporting Toronto’s thriving tech industry and the region’s innovation economy during a panel discussion at this week’s Collision conference (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

Artificial Intelligence

Research & Innovation

Startups

Undergraduate Students

Vector Institute

The University of Toronto is making significant contributions to the thriving Toronto tech industry and the region’s innovation economy, U of T President Meric Gertler told the Collision tech conference Thursday during a panel discussion on how start-ups can prepare for success.

“The university is both a really pivotal player in generating talent, [while] attracting and retaining talent,” said President Gertler.

“That makes a big difference in a city like this.”

He added the university’s goal is to create well-rounded graduates and entrepreneurs who understand customers’ needs and deliver advanced solutions. “We have focused on core competencies we want to develop in our students – things like being able to work well in teams, being able to communicate and collaborate effectively across cultural boundaries,” President Gertler said.

“We are trying to take advantage of the fact that Toronto is such a global city, and our student body is so global, to make sure we develop those capacities in our students.”

The three-day Collision conference wrapped up Thursday. It was the first of three years that the North American tech conference will be hosted in Toronto. Over 25,000 people from 120 countries, 800 investors and over 70 trade missions attended.

Almost 20 U of T start-ups participated in the event, including fintech firm Tenzor AI, and MedMe Health, which offers caregivers and patients help in adhering to medication regimes.

The schedule was packed with talks, seminars and day and evening networking events for investors and start-ups. New partnerships were also hatched, including an expanded collaboration between U of T and LG that will focus on AI applications for businesses.

U of T is building a “highway” between its existing and aspiring entrepreneurship community, President Gertler said (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Across various panels and speeches by the private sector and government, a consensus seemed to emerge: This is Canada’s moment.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kicked off the event Monday telling the opening night crowd that education and immigration policies are ensuring next-generation companies have the talent they need.

The “Canadian advantage is in providing extraordinarily well educated, hardworking, forward thinking, creative, ambitious Canadians to be part of the global economy,” Trudeau said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford echoed those comments in remarks Tuesday.

“If you are considering investing in Ontario, the most important thing you should look at is the people,” he said.

“Ontario has the best educated workforce in the world.”

Over the past decade, U of T entrepreneurs have created more than 500 companies and generated more than $1 billion in investment. The university will continue to build on those successes and is now creating a “highway” between its existing and aspiring entrepreneurship community, according to President Gertler.

For example, U of T recently launched a new $5-million True Blue Fund for entrepreneurship that targets early-stage start-ups.

U of T entrepreneurs like Allen Lau, co-founder and CEO of story-sharing platform Wattpad, with more than 65 million users, said the quality and global experience of university graduates in Toronto, combined with the city’s regional and national connections to other tech ecosystems, are keeping tech companies in Canada.

“Almost from day one we were able to build a workforce that can support our global ambitions,” said Lau, a U of T alumnus.

He added that about half the company’s workforce speaks another language, a crucial benefit for a company with an international customer base.

“I don’t believe that many cities in the world can do that. I am not saying Toronto is the only one, but Toronto is probably the best one to do that,” he told the audience.

Other speakers noted that Canada and Toronto will continue to be top destinations for the tech industry thanks in part to initiatives like the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

“Our AI ecosystem has done a really good job of putting Toronto on the map as a cluster of excellence,” said Candice Faktor, a managing partner with Faktory Ventures, a Toronto-based early-stage tech fund.

“[University Professor Emeritus] Geoffrey Hinton and his lab and his descendants have become world recognized … So the corporate R&D labs are being set up here, global talent is really interested in working with the best here,” she said of Vector’s chief scientific advisor who is sometimes dubbed the “godfather of deep learning.”

Twenty-five thousand jobs related to AI are anticipated in the Toronto region alone, according to Bianca Miller of the Vector Institute. To keep up, universities and companies will have to graduate new cohorts in the field while upskilling current employees, she said.

Failing to make those investments will lead to missed opportunities, Miller added, pointing to estimates that AI will add as much as US$15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Like TIFF for tech: Collision conference shines a spotlight on city’s booming innovation scene

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 16 May 2019 16:26:48 +0000

Like TIFF for tech: Collision conference shines a spotlight on city’s booming innovation scene

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 05/16/2019 - 12:26

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U of T President Meric Gertler and alumnus Allen Lau, the CEO of Wattpad, will be among the conference's more than 600 speakers, while several U of T startups will be in attendance (photo courtesy of Collision)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Global Lens

Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre

Alumni

Artificial Intelligence

Creative Destruction Lab

Impact Centre

President Gertler

Research & Entrepreneurship

Research & Innovation

Rotman School of Management

Roberto Cervantes and his team at CryptoNumerics are keen to take advantage of next week’s giant Collision tech conference to put the startup co-founded by University of Toronto alumni on the map.

One of the world’s fastest-growing and most influential technology conferences, Collision’s arrival in Toronto speaks to the rising importance of the city’s thriving tech and startup scene – not to mention the support it has received from U of T and its various innovation partners.

The three-day affair, which has relocated to Toronto from New Orleans for the next three years, will feature over 600 speakers as well as exhibits catering to the startup and tech sectors. It kicks off on Monday and wraps up on Thursday.

“We’re going to use Collision to talk to people and spread the word about who we are,” said Cervantes, a co-founder of CryptoNumerics, which uses artificial intelligence, or AI, to help companies in the financial and medical sectors crunch people’s data without compromising privacy.

“We want to talk to the corporate ventures and the innovation departments of companies to see how we can get in.”

Cervantes adds that Collision’s move to Toronto will give startups like CryptoNumerics, which received support from U of T’s Creative Destructive Lab, an unprecedented degree of global exposure. “Collision will bring a lot of people who might not have come to Canada and Toronto otherwise,” he said. “It’s a very positive thing for Toronto startups because it will offer access to other startups, investors and different ways of thinking and doing things.”

“Collision will bring a lot of people who might not have come to Canada and Toronto otherwise,” said Roberto Cervantes (second from right), one of CryptoNumerics' co-founders (photo courtesy of CryptoNumerics)

Collision arrives in Toronto at a time when the city’s tech and startup scene has plenty of momentum behind it. Just last year, for example, commercial real-estate firm CBRE said Toronto added more tech jobs than San Francisco, Washington and Seattle combined, and now ranks among North America’s top five tech talent markets. Meantime, a recent report by Silicon Valley think-tank Startup Genome ranked the Toronto-Waterloo region 13^th globally, and number one in Canada.

As for U of T, the university recently announced plans for the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre, a 750,000-square-foot complex designed to anchor U of T’s unique cluster of world-leading artificial intelligence scientists and biomedical experts, its world-class entrepreneurship network, and the country’s largest concentration of student- and faculty-led startups. The centre was made possible by a $100 million gift to the university from Canadian business luminaries Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman.

In 2017, U of T also made headlines for partnering with government and industry to launch the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which counts deep-learning pioneer and University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton as its chief scientific adviser.

Charles Plant, a longtime tech entrepreneur and investor who is at U of T’s Impact Centre accelerator, said landing Collision could give the city an extra push to launch it into the top echelon of tech ecosystems.

“Collision is a great opportunity for us to make a bigger impact to show the world what we’re doing,” Plant said, adding that the conference has the potential to do for Toronto’s tech industry what the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) did for the city’s film scene.

“TIFF put Toronto on the map and associated Toronto with the film industry in a way that enabled it to grow more effectively. I think that’s what Collision can do for the tech industry. It can put Toronto in a place in the world that’s more prominent.”

The speakers announced for this year’s summit include leading figures from Fortune 500 companies, heads of some of the world’s most exciting startups and influential figures from media, entertainment and sport.

U of T President Meric Gertler will speak to the challenge of scaling up companies and innovation ecosystems during a panel discussion titled “Managing Unexpected Growth,” scheduled for May 23 at Collision’s Startup University stage. U of T alum Allen Lau, CEO of self-publishing startup Wattpad, will also be on the panel.

Alumnus Allen Lau, who is co-founder and CEO of the story-telling platform Wattpad, will be on a panel with U of T President Meric Gertler (photo courtesy of Wattpad)

“Toronto is fast becoming one of the top global cities for technology innovation, so it’s only fitting that one of the world’s most influential technology conferences should move to our city,” said Derek Newton, U of T’s assistant vice-president of innovation, partnerships and entrepreneurship.

“U of T is proud to be one of the pillars of Toronto’s startup ecosystem, with our world-class research, talent production pipeline, assortment of accelerators and the university’s leadership role as a founding partner of innovation organizations like the MaRS Discovery District and the Vector Institute, which are crucial to making this city the vibrant technology hub that it is today.

“We look forward to Collision’s speakers, events and workshops energizing and inspiring the next generation of innovators from U of T.”

U of T will have a strong presence at Collision and will maintain a booth near the conference’s main stage, with a rotating cast of university-linked startups, incubators, co-op programs and alumni given the chance to engage with attendees.

Among the 15 or so startups to be featured at U of T’s booth is Blue J Legal, which uses AI to predict the outcomes of tax and employment law cases.

“We see Collision as an excellent opportunity to share our vision of bringing absolute clarity to the law, everywhere and on demand,” said Michael Rodgers, director of marketing at Blue J Legal, which received support from U of T’s UTEST program and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), a seed-stage accelerator affiliated with the Rotman School of Management.

“It’s a chance for us to showcase our one-of-a-kind technology and connect with innovative companies and professionals pushing the envelope of what’s possible in their respective fields.”

U of T will also host innovation tours during the conference, giving attendees the chance to learn about opportunities to collaborate with the university’s vibrant research and entrepreneurship community.

“We’ve heard from Silicon Valley alumni of ours, investors, potential corporate partners and startups looking for talent,” said Keri Damen, managing director of U of T Entrepreneurship. “It’s a great opportunity to showcase U of T, Toronto and Canada at large to the global tech community.

“Collision will bring in hundreds of global media, so it’s a great opportunity for us to reach a wider audience and let them know about the fantastic work being done here at U of T.”

U of T entrepreneurs have created over 500 startups over the past decade and have generated more than $1 billion in investment. The university’s innovation network – which includes 10 campus-linked accelerators – is ranked among the world’s top five university-based incubators in the world, according to UBI Global.

Plant said U of T’s world-leading leading research makes it perfectly placed to produce new tech companies. He hailed the impact of U of T Entrepreneurship in fostering a community of innovators and entrepreneurs – something he said didn’t exist during his early days as an entrepreneur.

“We’ve now acquired a community of people who know each other, that work together, that see each other at events,” he said. “That’s fundamental to establishing a successful tech economy.”

However, Plant said several challenges remain, particularly related to the scaling up of promising startups into world-leading companies.

“If we can figure out how to scale companies, our potential is limitless,” he said. “U of T has raw potential like you wouldn’t believe.”

How U of T is re-thinking higher education for a changing world: President Meric Gertler in India's BW Education

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 13 May 2019 18:20:25 +0000

How U of T is re-thinking higher education for a changing world: President Meric Gertler in India's BW Education

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 05/13/2019 - 14:20

Cutline

(photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Topic

Global Lens

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Cities

Graduate Students

President Gertler

Undergraduate Students

From re-imagining the physical design of classrooms to encouraging students to apply knowledge to real-world problems, the University of Toronto is constantly looking to improve how education is imparted in a rapidly changing world, U of T President Meric Gertler said in a wide-ranging interview with India’s BW Education.

"Learning will work best when it is situated in a rich environment where there are real problems at hand, on your doorstep,” President Gertler said, citing the challenge of expanding affordable housing in Toronto as an example of a pressing societal problem that U of T students and faculty are tackling from several perspectives, from urban planning and architecture to civil engineering and economics.

Students immersed in active problem-solving expand their skill-sets and boost their career prospects, but they also contribute to making Toronto a more livable city, which ultimately benefits U of T in what President Gertler termed “a case of enlightened self-interest.”

President Gertler also noted how U of T is experimenting with classroom designs – notably in the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship – to accommodate the shift towards increasingly interactive and group-focused education.

Read President Gertler’s full interview with BW Education

U of T, Ryerson, York and OCAD address student housing challenges, solutions at StudentDwellTO symposium

Romi Levine — Fri, 03 May 2019 17:34:18 +0000

U of T, Ryerson, York and OCAD address student housing challenges, solutions at StudentDwellTO symposium

Romi Levine Fri, 05/03/2019 - 13:34

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Students at all four Toronto universities struggle with housing affordability, researchers say (photo by Ken Jones)

Topic

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Affordability has become a primary concern for Toronto residents – from the rising value of homes to soaring rents. But in conversations about affordable housing, one group is often left out: post-secondary students.

The presidents of Toronto’s universities – the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, OCAD University and York University – are pooling their resources and expertise to address this fundamental issue faced by students through the StudentDwellTO initiative.

Since 2017, faculty and students at the four universities have been working together to conduct an extensive literature review, teach studio courses, hold focus groups with students, analyze data and look for solutions to student housing issues.

Their work converged this week at StudentDwell+, a two-day symposium held at York University where groups presented their findings and scholars from around the world shared their expertise.

See the results from StudentMoveTO

At the symposium, members of StudentDwell’s core team presented some of the initial findings from 26 focus groups conducted with 116 students on six campuses. They included concerns about: limited on-campus housing options; predatory landlords; high transportation costs; and limited ability to participate in extracurricular activities if students lived far away from their classes.

Students also said their physical and mental well-being had taken a toll because of housing-related stress, including feelings of isolation from not being able to participate fully in campus life.

In speaking with students and reading literature on student housing, it became clear that one of the key issues is that students are rarely consulted in the decision-making processes around student housing, said Shelagh McCartney, an assistant professor at Ryerson’s School of Urban and Regional Planning and a StudentDwell member.

“There's a lot of perspective from parents and from developers in these discussions, but there are very few from actual students,” she told U of T News.

When it comes to finding solutions for student housing challenges, it’s not about finding a silver bullet, but “trying to understand how you can leverage positive and negative things to actually come up with an opportunity to do something,” said Mauricio Quirós Pacheco, an assistant professor, teaching stream at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design who is also part of StudentDwell.

The StudentDwell team suggested ways for universities to get started on addressing students' housing needs.

Marcelo Vieta, assistant professor at U of T’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, said universities should look beyond developers to forge housing partnerships with non-profits, governments and co-operatives. He also said it was important to amplify student voices by teaming up with organizations such as student unions.

While design solutions are also being looked at, changing policy is also an important part of the equation, said Vieta.

“It's this unregulated private market with abusive landlords that's a major issue that's directly impacting [students’] education,” he told U of T News.

During the presidents’ panel discussion, President Gertler echoed these challenges.

“The status quo is clearly not working here,” he said. “We do need to find creative alternatives that depart from the standard private market model.”

One of the ways the U of T is doing so is through its “four corners” real estate strategy, according to President Gertler.

The strategy, which includes new residences like the proposed tower at Spadina and Sussex Avenues (left), focuses on “how we can utilize our land assets in particular in ways that generate value for the university and enhance our academic vision, and, at the same time, enhance the livability of everyone in the Greater Toronto Area,” President Gertler said.

U of T is in conversations with “socially-minded” developers who have a “shared goal of ensuring the continued dynamism of the city by ensuring people who live there are diverse in every sense of the word, including their socioeconomic position,” President Gertler added.

All four university leaders stressed the important role universities play in quality of life for Toronto residents and in addressing urban challenges.

“You see an increasing awareness of the importance of understanding the impact universities are actually having in bringing together multiple sectors, in bringing together not-for-profits or private industry to collaborate together and really leveraging individual strengths, and how to make a maximum difference or a maximum impact with a particular problem we're dealing with,” said Lenton.

In holding an event like StudentDwell+, Quirós Pacheco said those conversations between stakeholders can begin to take place.

“It's one of the few times where you really understand the breadth of the problem, but also the breadth of the expertise that are at the table and just how global the problem is.”

President Gertler on how U of T can prepare students for the 'fourth industrial revolution'

Romi Levine — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 17:09:35 +0000

President Gertler on how U of T can prepare students for the 'fourth industrial revolution'

Romi Levine Wed, 10/17/2018 - 13:09

Cutline

U of T President Meric Gertler calls himself a “techno-optimist” (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Topic

Global Lens

Artificial Intelligence

Graduate Students

President Gertler

Undergraduate Students

In an era where artificial intelligence and automation are becoming commonplace, “how can we educate our students to be ready for the disruptive changes brought by the fourth industrial revolution,” asks University of Toronto President Meric Gertler in an interview with the Korea Herald.

The answer, he says, is to prepare them to be resilient and to strengthen competencies they can use throughout their career, which include: “capacities for communication, creative problem-solving, teamwork and emotional intelligence.”

President Gertler spoke with the Seoul-based publication during a recent trip to Korea about the intersection of technology and education. In the article, he calls himself a “techno-optimist.”

“The history of technological development shows that the very forces that disrupt the economy also create new employment opportunities and whole new industries that we can’t predict,” he says.

Read the article in the Korea Herald

President Meric Gertler receives honorary degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University

ullahnor — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 15:02:12 +0000

President Meric Gertler receives honorary degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University

ullahnor Fri, 03/31/2017 - 11:02

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President Meric Gertler speaking at the commencement ceremony at Shanghai Jiao Tong University where he received an honorary degree (photo courtesy of Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

President Meric Gertler has become one of the few North American scholars to receive an honorary degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China.

He received the honour Sunday from the public research university at a commencement ceremony for students receiving advanced degrees. It was part of a six-day international trip that took him to Belfast, London and through the streets of Shanghai on a rented bike. Those who keep an eye on his Instagram account were also treated to an explainer on how best to enjoy XiaoLongBao steamed dumplings.

Previous recipients of an honorary degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong include Thomas Rosenbaum, president of Caltech University, Peter Salovey, president of Yale University, and Junichi Hamada, president of the University of Tokyo.

At the ceremony, President Gertler talked about the partnership between the University of Toronto and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and he quoted alumnus and Governing Council member Mark Rowswell – known in China as the popular entertainer Dashan.

“He said, and I quote, 'I didn’t go to China to be a comedian, but a bridge between East and West,'” President Gertler told students and their families.

“The partnership between our two universities – and indeed our two countries – is a bridge that truly spans the globe,” he said. “It supports a bustling, two-way traffic of talent, enabling the flow of ideas and the generation of solutions to some of the most important, shared challenges of our time.

“It fosters a deep appreciation of the power and necessity of international cooperation, in a period of history when some other countries are retreating to within their borders.”

President Meric Gertler at the commencement ceremony on Sunday (photo courtesy of Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

The president pointed out that scholars at the two universities have co-authored 524 publications in the past five years alone.

“This kind of collaboration is fostering global prosperity by generating and transmitting new ideas – and the innovations that come from them – as never before in our history,” he said.

This was the president’s fourth trip to China since he took office in 2013. During his second trip, in December 2015, he toured various Chinese universities and gave a talk at the Canadian embassy in Beijing on the role of leading universities and their host city-regions in driving prosperity.

He continued to build on that theme throughout this trip, when speaking to alumni in London on March 21 and in delivering the Eaton Lecture in Belfast on March 23. The latter is an annual event hosted by Queen’s University Belfast and funded through an endowment from the Eaton Foundation.

“In regions around the world – from Boston to Beijing to Belfast, to my own home in Toronto – the partnership between research-intensive universities and their host city-regions is a fundamental, mutually beneficial catalyst for innovation, resilience and prosperity,” he said.

“Universities help create urban dynamism. They are recognized as sources of well-educated talent, creativity, entrepreneurship, resilience and the capacity for places to reinvent their economies. They also bring long-term stability to their host regions, while at the same time connecting these places to the wider world. They have emerged as major drivers of local, national and international prosperity.”

'A stark alternative': President Meric Gertler on Canada's openness and inclusiveness in a changing world

ullahnor — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 15:00:54 +0000

'A stark alternative': President Meric Gertler on Canada's openness and inclusiveness in a changing world

ullahnor Thu, 12/08/2016 - 10:00

Topic

Undergraduate Education

Subheadline

“I think we’re doing many things right now that will position us as a stark alternative to things that are happening in other countries, including the U.K. and the U.S.”

University of Toronto President Meric Gertler speaks about Canadian universities' potential to “capitalise” on political climates in the U.S. and U.K. in today's Times Higher Education.

“There’s no question that with the kind of uncertainty that Brexit has triggered and also with the political climate south of the border in the U.S. and the kind of election campaign [there] over the last…months, Canada has certainly emerged as a place of stability, of openness, of inclusiveness,” said President Gertler, who spoke to Times Higher Education before Donald Trump was elected as the next American president.

“I think we’re doing many things right now that will position us as a stark alternative to things that are happening in other countries, including the U.K. and the U.S.,” he said.

He said it was a time for change at Canadian universities.

“One gets a sense that it is a particularly interesting moment where Canadian universities have an opportunity to capitalise on some great advantages if we do it intelligently.”

Canada hopes to attract 450,000 international students by 2022, roughly double the numbers in 2011. President Gertler told Times Higher Education that the key to meeting this target is the Canadian government's plans to relax the citizenship process for international students and the federal government's increased investment in research and scientific infrastructure.

“There’s no question that one of the factors that attract students to study in Canada is the opportunity to stay here after they graduate and build lives and build careers here,” he said.

Read the Times Higher Education article

U of T is organizing events for prospective students and alumni in New York City on Dec. 13 and in Washington D.C. on Dec. 15.

Read the U of T News article about U.S. students

The NYC event will feature a talk called 'Saving The World: Innovative Sustainable Development At U of T,' moderated by Professor Joseph Wong of the Faculty of Arts & Science, U of T's associate vice-president and vice-provost, international student experience. The talk will include professors from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Faculty of Medicine and Rotman School of Management.

Learn more about the NYC event

At the Washington D.C. event, a talk called 'Aftershocks: A Global View On The U.S. Election' will feature professors from the Faculty of Arts & Science, the University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management. Professor Peter Loewen will moderate.

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Read more about StudentDwellTO

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Read the article in the Korea Herald

President Meric Gertler receives honorary degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University

'A stark alternative': President Meric Gertler on Canada's openness and inclusiveness in a changing world

Read the Times Higher Education article

Read the U of T News article about U.S. students

Learn more about the NYC event

Learn more about the Washington D.C. event