___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Executive Summary The University of Toronto is the largest university in Canada and one of the largest publicly funded universities in North America – with 18 academic divisions, over 700 undergraduate programs, and more than 200 graduate programs across three campuses. In 2025-26, the University enrolled just over 103,000 students – equivalent to 92,251 full-time equivalent enrolments (FTEs) of courseload activity. domestic intakes were much stronger than planned this year (+900 across direct-entry programs), maintaining the trend of exceeding expectations in recent years.
Despite this strong demand from Canadian students, domestic intake plans will remain unchanged next year as the SMA corridor does not provide funding for additional students. Overall, international enrolment was 4.6% below plan, declining by 1,248 FTEs over last year. At the undergraduate level, international enrolment moved lower by 733 FTEs, while graduate international enrolment also decreased (-515 FTEs). The challenges associated with managing international enrolment is not unique to U of T, as international demand in the entire Canadian post-secondary sector has been impacted by the current environment.
However, the University of Toronto’s exceptional global brand has protected it against the kind of precipitous enrolment drops at other universities and especially colleges. Overall enrolment this year grew by just over 1,000 FTEs, which was slightly weaker than planned (-0.2%), and it was unevenly distributed between domestic and international enrolments. The increase in enrolment was concentrated at the undergraduate level (+1,146 FTEs) as graduate enrolment edged slightly lower (-140 FTEs). The rise in undergraduate enrolment was driven by UTSC, as it continues to accommodate the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH) expansion.
Undergraduate growth (+1.6%) was also lifted by UTM, a reflection of higher-than-planned intake of new students. Retention of upper year students also continues to remain strong, contributing to overall enrolment growth this year. The University has grown considerably over the past twenty years but is now entering a more steady period of enrolment levels. Enrolment is expected to increase moderately, by around 1,630 FTEs over the next five years, with growth concentrated at the graduate level.
While select divisions with targeted expansion funding are projected to record increases in enrolment, overall undergraduate enrolment is estimated to remain relatively flat over the horizon period (-279 FTEs). This reflects the readjustment necessary to our domestic cohorts to return closer to our SMA4 funded enrolment level. The combination of these cohorts graduating from their programs and divisions meeting their planned level of intakes is expected to lead to a gradual reduction in domestic enrolment over the projection horizon.
The current geopolitical environment and realities of operating under the federal permit cap system significantly impacted divisions’ international intakes this year. New international intakes in direct-entry programs totaled around 4,800 students this year – more than 1,000 below plan. It appears now that the international market has fundamentally shifted and that the intake levels in the years following COVID cannot be achieved in the coming years. As such, most academic divisions have reset their international intake targets based on recent enrolment levels, restoring them to pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, Enrolment Report 2025-26 3 University of Toronto