___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STUDENT LIFECYCLE SNAPSHOTS Applications and Admissions application numbers for Fall 2026 are promising, with international out-of-country applications up 20% and nearly two- thirds of international applicants making U of T their top choice university. With its wide range of academic programs and strong reputation, the University of Toronto receives over 160,000 applications every year from potential undergraduate and graduate students.
The volatility in the international recruitment market underscores why the University’s diversification strategy to build and increase connections with a broader range of international countries is so important. And the University has had success in recent years. For example, since 2018, new undergraduate intakes from Africa and the Caribbean/Latin America have grown by roughly 40%, and new students from the Middle East have more than doubled. Overall, the University welcomed new undergraduates from 132 countries this Fall (up from 118 in 2018) and drew more than forty students from 15 different countries (up from 7 in 2016).
More details on the University’s international diversification strategy are in Section 4. For Fall 2025, U of T was the first-choice university of over 20,000 Ontario high-school students and over 23,000 other Canadian and international applicants, accounting for 1 in 4 first choice applicants to an Ontario university direct-entry undergraduate program. In total, the University received nearly 120,000 applications for these programs through the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre (OUAC), an increase of 2.6% over last year’s strong numbers. With more applications than spaces available, programs must be selective in their admissions and strong candidates can sometimes be turned away.
Last Fall, for example, there were over 11,000 domestic applicants for roughly 900 funded first year Engineering spots and almost 3,500 domestic applicants for 300 Computer Science spaces on our St. George campus. The most recent statistics from OUAC show that almost two-thirds of our new students have a 90%+ high school average, and that 1 in every 5 high school graduates with a 90%+ average enrols at the University of Toronto. For a growing number of programs, however, grades are only part of the assessment and new students are also admitted on the strength of their leadership, community service, interpersonal skills, and lived experiences.
University also receives around 44,000 applications each year for graduate programs, and it continues to attract world-class talent and draw from deep applicant pools. Offer rates for doctoral and doctoral-stream master’s programs are typically around 25% each year with yield rates around 60%. Student Retention Student retention from first year to second year is critical for student success and for accurate institutional enrolment modelling. Across direct-entry undergraduate programs, 93% of first-year students typically progress to their second year. Rates are usually higher for students in second-entry and professional programs, often close to 100%.
These retention rates typically remain steady or improve as students progress through their programs. The University’s professional undergraduate programs are likewise in strong demand and are highly selective. Collectively, these programs received about 10,100 applicants last year – with approximately 16% of applicants receiving offers and 72% of those accepting their offer to join the University. In 2024-25, for example, the Faculty of Dentistry received 914 applications for its undergraduate DDS program, made 117 offers, and registered new students.
This year, upper-year undergraduate enrolment was slightly stronger than anticipated – confirming the trend of stronger retention rates in recent years. The University remains in high demand globally, receiving more than 41,500 international applications for undergraduate programs and is the first choice of 55% of all international applicants applying through OUAC – underscoring the University’s strong global brand. Geopolitical issues, as well as the implementation of the federal permit cap system, have impacted our recruitment efforts, as international applications for Fall 2025 decreased by 4%.
However, January OUAC Divisions continue to develop, implement and evaluate new initiatives to improve student retention and graduation across programs. The Academic Analytics (AA) project, led by the Enrolment Report 2025-26 14 University of Toronto