Educating Future Engineers We currently offer nine fully accredited, highly rated and internationally competitive undergraduate programs and two undergraduate degrees, along with seven highly sought-after graduate programs and four graduate degrees. These programs attract academically strong, culturally diverse students from across Canada and the world. Our goals include: continuing to assess our programs and curricula to ensure we remain relevant and visionary; integrating professional competencies into curricula; increasing flexibility in undergraduate curriculum; supporting opportunities for selfdirected learning and participation in extracurricular activities; attracting diverse, outstanding students; reducing dwell time for MASc and PhD students; developing vibrant MEng courses; and, increasing graduate student enrolment to 2,000 by 2015 while reducing undergraduate enrolment to 4,000.
Progress Highlights – Established a task force to review the first-year curriculum. – Underwent a full CEAB review of all of our undergraduate programs, resulting in accreditation renewal for every program. – Created two new undergraduate certificate programs in Mineral Resources and Nuclear Engineering, further strengthening our cross-disciplinary offerings. – Piloted a Facilitated Study Group program in our T-Program Linear Algebra course. – Increased scholarship opportunities for undergraduate students and supported the new University-wide President’s Scholars of Excellence Program by establishing a $5,000 second-year scholarship partnered with an opportunity to participate in a Faculty mentorship program. Nine exceptional U of T Engineering students received the scholarship in 2012–2013. – Increased international applicants by 12.7 per cent and applications from women candidates by 10.7 per cent. Applications in 2012 increased by 5.6 per cent overall. – Welcomed a very strong first-year undergraduate class with an Ontario secondary school entrance average of 91.3 per cent.
– Introduced a MEng in Cities Engineering and Management (MEngCEM) and MEng emphases in Advanced Water Technologies & Process Design and Financial Engineering. – Increased flexibility for our PhD students with the introduction of a flex-time registration option, and for MEng students with the addition of an extended full-time option. – Grew the graduate applicant pool by 9 per cent over 2011–2012, sustaining a four-year rising trend. – Moved closer to achieving our goal of 2,000 graduate students by 2015 with a growth in graduate enrolment to 1,933. – International students account for 22.5 per cent of our graduate students and 43 per cent of our master’s students (full-time equivalent) are in the MEng program. – Established a minimum stipend rate for all graduate students within the Faculty. – Furthered our connections to industry through hiring four PEng practitioners to teach four of our MEng courses.
4 | Introduction | Annual Report 2013 | Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering