Main campus of the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
This article is about the main University of Toronto campus in downtown Toronto, Ontario. For general information on the university as a whole, see University of Toronto.
The St. George campus,[a] also known as U of T St. George (UTSG) and sometimes the downtown campus, is the main campus of the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. Set on the historic grounds that surround Queen's Park in downtown Toronto, it is the oldest of the three campuses that comprise the University of Toronto's tri-campus system. St. George is where the university was first established in 1827, and has since expanded to a large area spanning multiple city blocks which makes up the majority of Toronto's University neighbourhood.[3] It is the largest of the university's three campuses, the other two of which are the Mississauga campus and the Scarborough campus, and the largest university campus in Canada in terms of student enrolment.
St. George is home to the university's central administration and the majority of its academic faculties, Varsity Blues athletic programs, and professional and graduate studies programs. It is the location of the university's college system, comprising 11 distinct constituent and federated colleges, each with their own character, history and varying degrees of autonomy.
Character
As the University of Toronto's main campus, it was first formed in the nineteenth century as the university was founded as King's College. Its architecture is epitomized by a combination of Romanesque and Gothic Revival buildings spread across the eastern and central portions of campus, most dating between 1858 and 1929.[4] It has been known historically as the St. George campus due to St. George Street bisecting the grounds from north to south, and the name came into more frequent use to distinguish it from the Scarborough and Mississauga campuses established in the later part of the twentieth century. St. George is the official name for the campus used by the university,[5][6] although it is often colloquially referred as simply the "University of Toronto."[7]
St. George is different from the university's two other campuses in the regard that it is not an academic division. The campus is the grounds on which the university is based, while its faculties, colleges, and schools are responsible for academics and admissions (the largest of which is the Faculty of Arts and Science). This is different from the Mississauga and Scarborough campuses, which each also act as undergraduate faculties.[8]
The north-central portion of the St. George campus as seen from Robarts Library, with the skyline of downtown Toronto in the background.
Central campus
King's College Circle
The central area of the St. George campus surrounds King's College Circle, a former circular street, which was recently transformed into a pedestrian area around the Front Campus field, the traditional heart of the university. The area includes (clockwise) University College, the Gerstein Science Information Centre, the Medical Sciences Building, Convocation Hall, Simcoe Hall, and Knox College. It is roughly bounded by St. George Street to the west, Hoskin Avenue to the north, Queen's Park Crescent W to the east and College Street to the south. The southeast corner of this area houses the main buildings of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.[9]
Hart House, located just northeast of King's College Circle, is a historical student activity centre that hosts a theatre, art museum, library, and various recreational spaces. Situated next to it is Soldiers' Tower, a memorial for students lost during the World Wars.[10][9]
Sidney Smith Hall is the central building of the Faculty of Arts and Science, the largest division of the university, which provides the majority of undergraduate education at the St. George campus.[15]
Varsity Centre and Area is a sports complex comprising Varsity Stadium, Varsity Arena, and the Varsity Pavilion. It is the practice and training facility for various Varsity Blues teams, and a venue for intercollegiate sports.[17]
Queen's Park is a large urban park within the campus grounds, surrounded by Queen's Park Crescent. It is the location of the Ontario Legislative Building, which is not part of the campus area. However, the land was acquired by the Government of Ontario in a 999-year "peppercorn" lease from the University of Toronto in 1859.[18]
All of the colleges in the University of Toronto's collegiate system are located at the St. George campus. The model was made to resemble those of the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge,[22] and each hold some degree of autonomy over admissions and other academic and financial affairs. They include housing and social duties of typical residential colleges.[23]
Full-time undergraduate students at the St. George campus are represented by the University of Toronto Students' Union (UTSU), which is also the largest student union at the university.[24] Student representative bodies also exist at the various colleges, academic faculties and departments. The Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students and the Graduate Students' Union are tri-campus bodies representing part-time undergraduates and postgraduate students respectively.[25][26]
St. George has the largest number of students of the three campuses, with approximately double that of the Mississauga and Scarborough campuses combined. It also attracts the most graduate students, with 94 per cent of the university's postgraduates in the 2024–25 academic year. Approximately 29.0 per cent of its students are international, a larger proportion than the 25.7 per cent at UTM and slightly less than the 30.7 at UTSC.[27]
↑ Allsop, Robert; etal. (1999). "Investing in the Landscape". Investing in the Landscape. The Open Space Steering Committee, University of Toronto. Archived from the original on July 28, 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2009.
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