The University of Toronto Scarborough (commonly known as UTSC or Scarborough) is one of the three campuses of the University of Toronto, located in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The campus is set upon 300 acres of suburban parkland in the neighbourhood of Highland Creek, east of the St. George campus in downtown Toronto. The campus was established in 1964 as Scarborough College, a constituent college of the Faculty of Arts and Science, and expanded following its designation as an academic division of the university in 1972. Today, Scarborough is the smallest of the university's three campuses in terms of enrolment but the largest in terms of land area.
The Scarborough campus mainly hosts undergraduate studies in the disciplines of arts, sciences, and management whilst also hosting limited postgraduate research programs. The campus is noted for being a pioneer and major provider of cooperative education programs at the University of Toronto, as well as the Bachelor of Business Administration degree. Its mental health studies program was the first to be offered in Canada. It also offers enrolment in joint programs with the adjacent Centennial College Morningside Campus.
The original campus structure, the Andrews Building, was internationally acclaimed for its architectural design. The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, a public sports facility, and Dan Lang Field, home to the baseball team of the Toronto Varsity Blues, are also situated on the Scarborough campus. The campus has traditionally held the annual F. B. Watts Memorial Lectures, which has hosted internationally renowned scholars since 1970.
Campus history Scarborough College The tract of land along the valley of Highland Creek was purchased in 1911 by Toronto-based businessman Miller Lash, who developed the site into his summer estate with a mansion, today known as the Miller Lash House. The mansion included 17 rooms, a barn, a coach house, and three houses for his staff to dwell. Over the following years, over 100 acres of the estate were also used as farmland. Following the death of Miller Lash in 1941, the estate was acquired by E. L. McLean, an insurance broker, in 1944 for $59,000. He made new additions to the estate, including a swimming pool and change room, and a retaining wall made in stone.
About of property was later purchased from McLean, just before his death, by the University of Toronto for about $650,000 in 1963, as part of the university's regional expansion. The groundskeeper of the land would continue to reside in the Highland Creek valley for the next 29 years. McLean's additions to the Miller Lash House, which would eventually become the residence of the campus's principal, were modernized, and of surrounding land north of the estate were also acquired. The University of Toronto established Scarborough College as part of its collegiate system and declared the campus a branch of the Faculty of Arts and Science. David Carlton Williams was appointed as the principal of Scarborough College and the planned Erindale College, as well as vice-president of the university. Scarborough and Erindale colleges were the first and only permanent regional expansions of the university, and the first colleges to establish their campuses at a distance from the original downtown location. The college's faculty, consisting of 16 members, was also established and headquartered at the St. George campus in downtown Toronto. First classes were held at Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute and Old Biology Building on the St. George campus. Designed by John Andrews, the first building of the campus began construction the following year. Due to delays in construction after a strike among workers, the Scarborough College opened in temporary classes at St. George to 191 full-time students in 1965. The first building was completed in time for the following academic year.
The college included a television production studio. This was for a unique video lecturing system the college initially planned to have, which relies on the use of closed-circuit television for teaching purposes. The system grabbed international media attention, and was complimented in the 1967 edition of Time. However, the video lecturing system was abandoned after it was condemned for the lack of communicability of students with instructors.
In 1972, the campus was reorganized from a constituent college to a fully-fledged academic division of the university, separate from the Faculty of Arts and Science.
In 1973, Scarborough College became the first post-secondary institution in Ontario to adopt a course credit system and provided the first cooperative education program in the province. The campus was re-branded as the University of Toronto at Scarborough in 1996, after it had been known unofficially as the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus since 1983. It officially adopted its present name in 2006.
Location
For much of its existence, the University of Toronto Scarborough was described as a "mid-sized university campus". It sits on of land, forming the west side of the Highland Creek neighbourhood. It is bounded entirely by Morningside Avenue to the west, adjacent to the Morningside campus of Centennial College. The campus is bounded to the east by residential areas and Military Trail. The campus extends the north to south of Highway 401 and south to the north of Old Kingston Road. Unlike the university's downtown St. George campus, the Scarborough campus is located in a suburban area, consisting of residential houses along its eastern side and urban forestry on its southern and western side.
Ellesmere Road separates the south and north portions of the campuses. The neighbourhood's namesake river runs through the lower campus, and its valley consists of Ma Moosh Ka Win Valley Trail (formerly known as Valley Land Trail) and other pedestrian trails that link the campus to nearby parks and neighbourhoods. The underground passes and three major inter-campus pedestrian walks: Gallery Walk, Illiniaqtiup Aqqutinga (Scholars Walk), and Tsi Yonnenyakéhtó:Ten (Rock Walk) allow convenient travel between buildings in the south campus. Students often use the sidewalks at Military Trail to access the north campus buildings.
Architecture
1964–1999
The Andrews Building, the first completed building of the campus, named after its architect, John Andrews, was built in a brutalist architectural style and completed in 1964. Andrews objected to the term "brutalist," since the architecture was built with human needs and logic in mind, aiming to create a connected space that limited outdoor exposure in the winter. The interiors were made to mimic the streets of a city, with wide hallways and balconies on upper floors. The building is divided into two wings, known as the Science Wing and the Humanities Wing. The Meeting Place, a large atrium at the centre of both wings, is often used to hold events. The design of the Andrews Building, along with its unique closed-circuit television teaching system, was the target of international acclaim during the decade.
The 1970s and onward saw new buildings being designed in a modernist style. The Recreational Wing, now known as the Bladen Wing (named after Vincent Bladen, former dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science) was completed in 1972. The Recreation Wing (R-Wing) housed the University of Toronto Scarborough Library, then known as the Vincent W. Bladen Library. The N'Sheemaehn Child Care Centre, one of the university's non-profit child day care facilities, opened in 1990. An underground corridor completed in 1995, known as the Hall of Excellence, connects Bladen Wing and the Humanities Wing.
2000–2008
Double cohort brought challenges to the teaching, study and residence spaces at the campus due to an increase in first-year enrolment. In response, the Academic Research Centre (ARC) and Joan Foley Hall were constructed. The ARC was built in 2003 as an extension of the Bladen Building with a copper finish. It allowed for the relocation and expansion of the University of Toronto Scarborough Library to its present state and introduced the campus's first near-500-seat lecture theatre, which has since held the Watts Lecture series, after formerly being held in the Meeting Place. The Doris McCarthy Gallery, also found in the ARC, exhibits works by local artists and campus alumni, Doris McCarthy. The Student Centre was opened in 2004 through a project that was initiated and funded by students through a levy from 2002 to 2027. Constructed using 18 tonnes of recycled steel from a demolished gallery at the Royal Ontario Museum, the three-storey Student Centre earned a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification as well as a Green Design Award from the City of Toronto. The Kina Wiiya Enadong Building (formerly known as the Management Wing, later renamed the Social Sciences Building due to the relocation of the Department of Management, and then changed to its current name in 2021 in response to the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report), which opened in 2004, was originally the home of the Department of Management. After the completion of the Instructional Centre in 2011, it became the new home of the Department of Management, the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, and the offices of cooperative education programs. Brick and limestone were used to create the Arts and Administration Building, completed in 2005, which holds the principal's office. In 2005, the Consulate General of Japan donated 50 cherry trees to the campus to symbolize the friendship between Japan and Canada. The trees at Sakura Grove bloom annually, attracting students, faculty, and staff to enjoy the fleeting beauty of the blossoms. The Science Research Building, where post-graduate research facilities and a lecture hall are located, is an extension of the Science Wing that was completed in 2008.
2009–present
Since 2009, the university has undertaken a proposal to substantially expand the campus north of Ellesmere Road, starting with the construction of the Instructional Centre, funded by Canada's Economic Action Plan, completed in 2011. The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (built 2014) was one of the main venues of the 2015 Pan American Games and 2015 Parapan American Games. The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre brought pool facility to campus and significantly expanded the size of the gym. The Parapan American Games also brought an addition of seven accessible tennis courts to the Highland Creek valley. The Environmental Science and Chemistry Building, completed in summer 2015, was the third building to open in the north grounds. Highland Hall, built on the footprint of the old gym and athletic centre, houses the registrar's office, admissions and recruitment, classrooms, a lecture hall, and an event centre. The Sam Ibrahim Building opened in 2024 as a "second instructional centre" on the north campus, built to house offices for the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences and several lecture halls. Harmony Commons is a student residence completed in 2023 and Indigenous House is due to be completed in 2025.
In 2022, the Ontario government announced that the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus would offer medical education. The Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH) will be a hub on campus for the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, training approximately 40 physicians, 56 physician assistants, 30 nurse practitioners, 40 physiotherapists, and 300 undergraduate students in health sciences each year starting in September 2026 and 2027 at the Myron and Berna Garron Health Sciences Complex.
Academics The following academic divisions of the University of Toronto operate on the Scarborough campus (not including UTSC itself). Those marked with an asterisk (*) offer only graduate programs at the campus.