THE VARSITY The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
November 19, 2018
Data at U of T: gender demographics, donations, wireless connections
SCSU Annual General Meeting Recapping the events of the night, page 3 Debates on funding student organizations, page 5 Controversy over agenda, read online
Breaking down the publicly released data the university collected in 2017 Andy Takagi Associate News Editor
The Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s AGM took place on November 14. JOSIE KAO/THE VARSITY
Feature Reconnecting with the past, looking to the future: an interview with UTSC’s new Indigenous Engagement Coordinator
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Housing in Toronto: report shows grim rental market Rent continues to rise, building of expensive condos favoured over cheaper rental units Hannah Carty Varsity Staff
The rental market in Toronto remains dismal, with a recent report from Rentals.ca showing that Toronto rents are the highest in the country, especially in the heavily student populated areas around UTSG. As of October 24, the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom was $2,166, and a two-bedroom was $2,589. Rentals.ca, a popular website for apartment hunters across the country, also reported that the Ontario average asking rent per square foot was $2.76. Vacancy rates in the city are below two per cent, creating a competitive housing climate among Torontonians. Being in the centre of downtown, UTSG is surrounded by some of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Toronto, such as Yorkville and the Entertainment District. Average rent in Yorkville, which surrounds most of
the northeast corner of campus, was $3,468 a month. However, escaping downtown isn’t a solution to the rising rents, as the top eight most expensive cities in the country are all part of the GTA, including Richmond Hill, Mississauga, and North York. Rental prices are being pushed up by the unwillingness to buy, according to the website’s report. Toronto has experienced a housing bubble in the past year or so, therefore making people more hesitant to buy. In addition, high mortgage credit requirements — along with the recently increased interest rate — is “reducing the credits available, reducing the ability for people to buy. So they’re choosing to rent for longer, so that’s certainly increasing demands in the rental market, which would have gone into the ownership market,” according to Ben Myers, who runs the consulting firm that analyzes the data for Rentals.ca’s housing report. Rental rates, page 3
Vol. CXXXIX, No. 10
Business U of T startup Grid makes parking painless
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Comment Smoking ban — boon or bust? Two students debate
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Arts “I would say chess is in my blood”: inside the world of competitive chess
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Science Challenging the idea of Type A and B personalities
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Sports Our favourite NHL memories
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Every year, the Office of Planning and Budget Office releases a report on the demographic data that U of T collects, including figures on international enrolment, the number of degrees awarded by field, and even the average number of wireless connections per day. Notably, engineering and science degrees were heavily skewed toward male recipients, while education and physical education degrees were mostly given to female students. The report also shows that an overwhelming amount of international students at U of T are from China, with other countries making up a small percentage in comparison. Here’s a breakdown of what that data shows and what stood out. Student gender balance Of the 65,051 full-time undergraduate students last year, 55.7 per cent identified as female, 43.7 per cent as male, 22 students as another gender identity, and 341 students’ gender identities remained undisclosed. In its collection of data on student gender, the university only started including the category of “another gender identity” in 2017. In comparison to figures from 2007, the university has maintained the ratio of female to male full-time undergraduate and graduate students. Part-time undergraduates were 61 per cent female in 2007. The 2017 data shows a slight majority male student population among part-time undergraduates. Part-time graduate students had the largest disparity in gender, with 64.4 per cent of the population identifying as female — two per cent up from 2007 numbers. Data on the number of degrees awarded by field of study for the 2016 calendar year shows large gender disparities in the areas of engineering and physical sciences, education and physical education, and mathematics and physical sciences. Engineering and physical science degrees overrepresented male students, with only 380 undergraduate degrees out of 1,186 being awarded to female students, amounting to less than 33 per cent. Disparities are especially apparent in doctoral engineering and physical science degrees, where only 26 per cent of the 156 degrees awarded were to female students. Among the 1,115 undergraduate mathematics and physical science degrees awarded in 2016, 39 per cent
were to female students. These same disparities appear for doctoral degrees as well, with only 24 per cent of the 105 doctoral degree recipients and 31 per cent of the 118 master’s degrees being awarded to female students. Education and physical education degree recipients also showed gender disparities, where female students are overwhelmingly represented. Across 1,287 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees awarded, threequarters were female, with the largest disparity among the 759 masters students, where only 21 per cent were male. International student enrolment International students who attend U of T are overwhelmingly from China. With 65.1 per cent of the undergraduate international student enrolment, the 10,463 Chinese international students made up 14.6 per cent of U of T’s total undergraduate population in 2017. The second-highest international population was from India, with a comparatively few 677 students enrolled. Students from South Korea, the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Nigeria made up the remaining international undergraduate student population with roughly 12.8 per cent share of total international undergraduate enrolment. Trends remain similar for graduate international enrolment. Students from China made up 34.7 per cent of the graduate international student population — with students from the United States and India having made up 11.4 and 11.2 per cent of international graduate students, respectively. By geographic region,undergraduate international enrolment has fluctuated. Enrolment from North America has increased from 281 to 449 students since 2013, while international students coming from the Caribbean and Latin America are on a rapid decline, with 2017 seeing about half of the 2014 enrolment. However, European international student enrolment maintained high levels, at around 800 students per year. The Asia and Pacific region’s enrolment has seen a 68.9 per cent increase since 2013, more than any other regional division of international enrolment for undergraduate students. Again, these trends are mirrored in the graduate student population. Of the 3,118 international graduate students in 2017, more than half were from Asia and the Pacific, with North America and the Middle East making up the next largest populations. Data, page 4