___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ International Diversification The University also provides over $2.6 million in needs-based awards and emergency bursaries for international students facing unforeseen financial challenges. This is in addition to the Scholars-at-Risk program, which in 2024-25 provided $420,000 to 48 students who qualified as asylum-seekers, refugees or exchange students impacted by civil unrest in their home country.
Despite the federal government’s policy that caps the number of new international student permits, diversifying the regional and socioeconomic background of international students is a pillar of U of T’s international strategy. Recruitment efforts continue to be focused on ensuring that the international student body more closely reflects the University’s wide range of global partnerships. Fall 2025 continued our progress in diversifying intakes with students from 132 countries and 42% from the largest single source.
To support these efforts, direct-entry undergraduate divisions continue to invest in additional merit-based scholarships for international students from diverse global regions, earmarking 6% of international undergraduate tuition revenue towards this goal ($75 million planned in 2026-27). Each division determines an appropriate mix of domestic and international students in their programs, based on their own priorities, and on the global demand from international students, and designs its own award program based on diverse criteria including merit, financial need, priority regions for diversification, and intended program of study.
Student Housing Housing options are a key consideration for students when considering where to attend University. Given the size of the UofT community, with over 100,000 students and only 10,800 beds available across three campuses, the gap between available housing and demand is substantial. The University’s housing supply includes 7,900 units on the St.George campus, 1,500 at UTM and 1,400 at UTSC. This includes the recently opened 750-bed Harmony Commons on the Scarborough campus, acquisition of 890 beds from Campus One adjacent to the downtown campus, and the 500-bed Oak House that opened on the St. George Campus this Fall. The University also provides 150 Lester B.
Pearson Scholarships annually to exceptional international students, which provide funding for tuition and living expenses for their entire undergraduate education – averaging $89,000 per student last year. U of T also has a strong collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation to provide talented yet financially disadvantaged students from Africa with full financial assistance for tuition, books, and food and housing for their four-year undergraduate studies.
Recently, the University joined the MCF and a network of leading African universities to establish the Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative, a multi-year initiative to enhance primary health care workforce education, entrepreneurship, and innovation across Africa. The majority of the University’s current student housing stock (outside of the 1,150 beds in Grad House and Family Housing) are set aside for undergraduate students. Roughly three-quarters of these are assigned to first-year students to meet the University’s housing guarantee to provide on-campus housing to all full-time first-year direct-entry undergraduate students who want it.
This guarantee extends to international students, who make up about 45% of residents in undergraduate housing. To meet our growing demand, the University has launched its Build More Housing initiative, which aims to add up to 5,500 new beds over the next decade. As a first step, the University is actively engaged with external partners to develop around 1,200 undergraduate and graduate units at two on-campus locations, and additional opportunities off-campus in the coming year. Enrolment Report 2025-26 24 University of Toronto