What Can I Study?

Before beginning to determine which U of T faculty is the best fit for your intended studies, please review the English language requirements for exchange at U of T.

What you can study while on exchange at U of T largely depends on which faculty you are admitted to. Below you will find details about eligibility, academic options and restrictions, and application requirements by U of T faculty. All graduate-level exchange students should be nominated to the School of Graduate Studies.

Am I Eligible

What Can I Study?

How Do I Apply?

Admitted Students: What Should I Do Before Arriving?

Institute for Advanced Study in Pavia (IUSS) logo

Institute for Advanced Study in Pavia (IUSS)

Country: Italy

Level(s) of Study: Graduate

The School of Graduate Studies (SGS) is the gateway to all graduate programs at the University of Toronto. U of T offers approximately 300 graduate programs covering nearly 400 areas of study. Any exchange student wanting to do graduate-level course work or research at any faculty or department at U of T must apply to SGS.

Option ONE: Research only 

If you intend to do research only while on exchange at U of T, your admission will be granted through the International Visiting Graduate Research (IVGS) program. All IVGS placements begin with a key relationship: students need to find a qualified supervisor willing to oversee their research. Once a U of T supervisor has been established, the application can begin. Please visit the IVGS program page for details on finding a faculty supervisor and application instructions.

After you have been admitted, please email your admission letter to inbound.exchange@utoronto.ca. If you have been nominated for exchange by your home institution, we will apply a fee-waiver for the IVGS fees.

For questions pertaining to the IVGS program, please contact sgs.international@utoronto.ca.

Option TWO: Full-time course work for credit

The eligibility, restrictions, and application information below pertains to exchange students wanting to do graduate course-work at U of T. Please note that graduate exchange applications are considered on an individual basis by each graduate unit. Meeting the minimum eligibility does not guarantee admission. If your application is not accepted by a graduate unit, we do our best to find an alternative option for you, including coming as an undergraduate student instead.

Location(s)

Most graduate programs are located on the St. George (downtown) campus, with the exception of the Institute of Management & Innovation Program, which is at our Mississauga (UTM) campus hosting a number of graduate programs.

Campus(es)

St. George

Contact(s)

CIE Inbound Exchange
How Do I Apply?

 

Eligibility

Graduate exchange students doing course work while on exchange need to be registered in the equivalent of a full-time course load, as defined by the graduate unit/department.

To apply for graduate exchange course work at U of T, you must be enrolled in, or admitted to, a similar graduate program at your home institution. You also need to have achieved a mid-B average in the final year of your undergraduate studies. To confirm whether your degree meets the SGS minimum requirements, please use the International Credentials Equivalencies tool.

Before applying for exchange, you need to determine the graduate unit (department, faculty, or centre) and/or program that offers the courses you would like to take at U of T. You will take all/most of your courses from one “home” department. You cannot have a collaborative specialization (CS) as your home department.

STEP ONE: Use this list to determine the area of study that best matches your program of study at your home institution.

STEP TWO: Click on the program link to find the link to the departmental website.

STEP THREE: Use the departmental website to find graduate courses offered by the department.

STEP FOUR: Include your desired home department/program in your Statement of Intent when applying. Your desired home department should match the list of courses you submit in your application.

 

*The Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy has three distinct programs that graduate students can apply to:

You can only apply to one of these programs for your exchange. When you are submitting your application, please make sure to indicate which program that you are applying for in your proposed course list.


Restrictions

Any graduate programs offered by the following faculties/departments are not open to exchange students:

  • Cinema Studies Institute
  • Department of Anthropology
  • Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development (APHD) (at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education – OISE)
  • Department of Cell and Systems Biology
  • Department of English
  • Department of Nutritional Sciences
  • Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
  • Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Department of Physical Therapy
  • Department of Physiology
  • Department of Psychology
  • Department of Social Justice Education (SJE) at OISE
  • Financial Insurance [Statistical Sciences]
  • Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME)
  • Institute for Management & Innovation
  • Institute of Biomedical Engineering
  • Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

 

The following programs, including Progressive Professional Programs, are not open to exchange students:

  • Master of Teaching (MT)
  • Master of Law (LLM)
  • Master of Financial Economics (MFE)
  • Master of Finance (MFin)
  • Master of Mathematical Finance (MMF)
  • Master of Financial Risk Management (MFRM)
  • Master of Arts in Psychological Clinical Science (at UTSC)
  • Master of Accounting and Finance (MAccFin at UTSC)
  • Master of Management & Professional Accounting (at UTM)

 

*The Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology only admits full-year exchange students (one term applications will not be considered).

 

*Master of Business Administration (MBA): Rotman School of Management operates its own MBA exchange program. Please consult their website for more information.

 


Application

After you have been nominated by your home institution, you will be invited to apply for exchange at U of T via our Mobility Online portal. The School of Graduate Studies requires the following documents:

Student applicants must submit:

* All student documents must be submitted in PDF (Word or other forms will not be accepted).

  1. Statement of interest (1-2 pages)
  2. Course descriptions: A typed chart/list that briefly details all post-secondary courses you have/will complete before coming to the University of Toronto. The chart/list should include course titles and a short description or list of the main topics covered in each course (copying and pasting from a course calendar/syllabus is fine).
  3. CV or Resume
  4. Proposed course List – A list of U of T graduate courses you are interested in taking while on exchange
  5. Applicants should provide their home institution’s exchange office with English language test results, if applicable. Please refer to our English language requirement page for details.

  Additional material for Faculty of Music

  • For Performance applicants: At this URL, Faculty of Music audition/interview requirements from the drop down menu, applicants choose the appropriate program (instrument) and degree and scroll to the bottom of the page to find the repertoire guidelines under “Audition Requirements”. Applicants would have to provide the URL for each recording.
  • For Composition applicants: A composition portfolio of three to five works for a variety of media, including some with moderately large instrumentation and some sustained movements of five minutes or more. The portfolio should contain scores, and recordings when available. Hard copies of the composition may be uploaded as a pdf document through the Exchange Portal; the URL should be provided for any recordings.

 

  Additional material for Daniel’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design

A portfolio including three to five samples/projects documenting your creative ability. Please submit your portfolio as one PDF file (100 MB or less, total PDF file size).

 

Partner institution staff must submit:

* All partner documents must be submitted in PDF (Word or other forms will not be accepted).

  1. Academic transcripts of all previous post-secondary study. Admission is based primarily on undergraduate grades.
  2. Confirmation of completion of an undergraduate degree OR confirmation of admission to a graduate program
  3. Two academic reference letters
  4. English language test, if applicable: Please refer to our English language requirement page for details.

U of T Engineering is a thriving community that provides unparalleled experiential learning opportunities and produces some of the world’s most innovative engineering research. U of T Engineering consistently places first in Canada and as one of the top schools in the world across all rankings.

Exchange students admitted to the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering may take courses from any programs within the Faculty:

  • Chemical Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Computer Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Industrial Engineering
  • Materials Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Mineral Engineering
  • Engineering Science

COMPUTER SCIENCE VS. COMPUTER ENGINEERING

For students interested in studying Computer Science (Faculty of Arts & Science) and/or Computer Engineering (Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering) at U of T, please read the following options for choosing the most appropriate faculty:

Option 1: Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering

  • Access to Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) courses.
  • Access to other U of T Engineering courses.
  • Limited access to Arts & Science courses:
    • Can enrol in up to two Faculty of Arts & Science courses per term, but no enrolment priority is given to Engineering students in these courses.
    • Cannot enrol in any Arts & Science Computer Science (CSC) courses.
    • A list of other restricted Arts & Science courses is made available in June each year.
  • Required to enrol in a minimum of four courses and maximum of five courses per term.
  • Only offered on St. George campus.

Option 2: Faculty of Arts and Science

  • Access to Arts & Science Computer Science (CSC) courses
  • Cannot enrol in courses offered by the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering (including ECE).
  • Access to other Arts & Science courses.
  • Required to be enrol in minimum of three courses and a maximum of five courses per term.
  • Choose from one of the three campuses: George, Mississauga and Scarborough.

Campus(es)

St. George

Contact(s)

CIE Inbound Exchange
How Do I Apply?
Academic Calendar
Academic Timetable

 

Restrictions

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering Courses

The following departments/courses have very competitive enrolment and/or small class sizes. As such, they are difficult for exchange students to get into. While students may request enrolment in the following departments/courses, they may need to choose alternates due to availability:

  • Applied Science and Engineering (APS)
  • Joint minor (JRE)
  • Final -year design (XXX498H) and thesis (XXX499Y1) course

Faculty of Arts & Science Courses

Students admitted to U of T Engineering may take up to two Faculty of Arts & Science courses per term, but no priority enrollment is given in these courses and some courses are not available. The list of restricted courses is available in June each year.


Application

After you have been nominated by your home institution, you will be invited to apply for exchange at U of T via our online student application portal. The Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering requires the following documents:

Student Applicants must submit:

  • Statement of interest (1-2 pages).
  • Course descriptions: A typed chart/list that briefly details all post-secondary courses you have/will complete before coming to the University of Toronto. The chart/list should include course titles and a short description or list of the main topics covered in each course (copying and pasting from a course calendar/syllabus is fine).

Partner-Institution Staff must submit:

  • Academic transcripts of all previous post-secondary study.
  • English language test, if applicable (see exemptions):
    1. IELTS: minimum overall band of 6.5, with no band below 6.0.
    2. TOEFL Internet-based Test (IBT): minimum 89 overall with minimum 22 on the writing section.