Preparing future-ready graduates

The world our graduates are entering is changing quickly. U of T is developing new degree pathways to prepare students for the realities of modern work and for a lifetime of learning, adaptation and contribution.

The University of Toronto educates more than 100,000 students each year across three campuses and a vast array of disciplines. Many of these students will go on to lead governments, companies, communities, research labs, arts organizations, public institutions and more.

For almost 200 years, we have helped graduates build the foundational ability to think, adapt, create and lead through periods of turbulent change. On the eve of our third century, students are entering a rapidly shifting labour market with new demands for talent. While our enduring dedication to foundational learning will continue to serve our students well, we can do more to prepare them for what comes next.

People walk along the paved path in front of Convocation Hall at U of T.

Three people stand in a darkened, high-tech room, interacting with a large, curved digital screen.

This mission is more urgent than ever.

We have heard the criticism before: universities are too slow, siloed and bound by inherited ways of doing things. They cannot keep pace with today’s challenges or prepare students to navigate a fast-changing world. But a great university always has its sights on the future.

U of T will partner with government and industry to identify where talent needs are growing fastest and design offerings that maximize the employability of our graduates. Through degree innovation, we will create new and more flexible pathways that reflect the nature of modern work. We will expand partnerships with other institutions in higher education to create new entry points for a broader range of students. And we will strengthen experiential learning and entrepreneurship so that more students can learn by doing, whether in research labs, community organizations, startups or government offices.

This mission is more urgent than ever. Canada’s economy is shifting rapidly. Employers need graduates who can adapt quickly, reason across disciplines, communicate clearly and persuasively, work with people from different backgrounds, make decisions in the face of uncertainty and bring ethical judgment to complex problems. These are not “soft skills.” They are the core competencies that Canadians must possess to meet the challenges of the 21st century head-on — and they are precisely what a U of T education delivers.

This commitment prepares students for a changing world without compromising what makes a U of T education distinctive.

Canada needs people who can think critically and connect ideas across fields. That is what a University of Toronto education provides.

A person wearing green protective earmuffs uses the controls in the UTIAS flight research simulator.

Two women wearing medical scrubs and stethoscopes stand beside a bed in the Bloomberg Nursing simulation lab.

What this commitment includes:

Advancing new degree pathways.
Expanding partnerships with other institutions of higher education.
Working with employers and government to align selected programs with emerging skills needs.
Growing experiential learning across all three campuses and globally.
Creating modular and stackable credentials that support learning across a lifetime, not only during the traditional degree window.

What this commitment includes

U of T will use its three campuses as a living laboratory for responsible AI adoption, embedding AI tools in real institutional workflows and evaluating their impact rigorously.
The university will partner with federal and provincial government, research hospitals, and industry to co-design and run aligned pilots across diverse organizational settings.
Research through the Schwartz Reisman Institute, the Rotman School of Management, and across the university will focus on the human dimensions of AI adoption, including workforce transition, governance, equity, and public trust.
Knowledge mobilization, including practical playbooks, toolkits, and policy guidance, will ensure that what works at U of T can scale across Canada.