II--The University

The University of Guelph was established in 1964, when its founding colleges -- the Ontario Agricultural College, the Ontario Veterinary College and Macdonald Institute -- joined with a new college of arts and science. Today, the University of Guelph comprises six colleges -- Arts, Biological Science, Physical and Engineering Science, Social and Applied Human Sciences, the Ontario Agricultural College, and the Ontario Veterinary College.

The University of Guelph is renowned in Canada and around the world as a research-intensive and learner-centred institution and for its commitment to open learning, internationalism and collaboration.

Students may pursue more than 80 undergraduate and 45 graduate degree programs spanning the natural and physical sciences, social sciences and humanities. Faculty at the University of Guelph have won more prestigious 3M Fellow teaching awards than any comparably sized university in Canada. Our students are no less accomplished: 94.4 per cent of first-year students enter with an average of at least 75 per cent.

A total of 14,514 students attend Guelph, including 12,526 full- and part-time undergraduates and 1,623 full- and part-time graduate students. The University of Guelph is a highly residential community, with about 4,600 students living in campus residences.

With an estimated $79 million in research funding, the University of Guelph is one of the country's top research institutions. Among its researchers, Guelph numbers 15 Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. A 30-acre research park adjacent to the campus is home to a growing number of research-intensive industries.

An enhanced partnership reached in 1997 between the University of Guelph and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) relocated OMAFRA employees to a new, 86,000-square-foot research complex adjacent to campus, and made the University responsible for Ontario's agricultural colleges at Alfred, Kemptville and Ridgetown, and for the Horticultural Research Institute of Ontario and OMAFRA's Laboratory Services. With its enhanced partnership, its research park and the Guelph Food Technology Centre -- an independent laboratory on campus for food processing research and product development -- the University of Guelph is the hub of a rapidly growing cluster of agri-food education, research and laboratory services in Canada.

Guelph's commitment to internationalism is reflected in several ways. Guelph attracts 500 international students from 55 countries and maintains 58 exchange programs with 18 countries. The University offers more than 60 distance degree credit courses to more than 6,500 open learning course registrants. In addition, there are about 350 University of Guelph students in study-abroad programs. The University of Guelph has 65 public- and private-sector partners in 30 countries, and participates in Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) projects worth a total of $11 million around the world. Guelph's alumni number about 72,000 people in 115 countries.

Academic Organization

Learning Objectives

Arising from the Aims and Objectives Report, the following Objectives were approved by the Senate of the University in 1987. They are a set of objectives described in terms of the desired characteristics of educated graduates, and are used in part to guide educators in their development of courses and programs.

Mission Statement

The University of Guelph is a research-intensive, learner centred university. Its core value is the pursuit of truth. Its aim is to serve society and to enhance the quality of life through scholarship. Both in its research and in its teaching programs, the University is committed to a global perspective.

The University offers a wide range of excellent programs, both in theoretical and applied, disciplinary and interdisciplinary, undergraduate and graduate, in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, as well as professional fields. Among these, it recognizes agriculture and veterinary medicine as areas of special responsibility.

The University attracts students, faculty, and staff of the highest quality. It is animated by a spirit of free and open enquiry, collaboration, and mutual respect. It asserts the fundamental equality of all human beings and is committed to creating for all members of its community, an environment that is hospitable, safe, supportive, equitable, pleasurable, and above all, intellectually challenging.

The University of Guelph is determined to put the learner at the centre of all it does, recognizing that research and teaching are intimately linked and that learning is a life-long commitment. The University eagerly promotes collaboration among undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as with our local and international community, other educational institutions, government and business.

The University of Guelph is committed to the highest standards of pedagogy, to the education and well-being of the whole person, to meeting the needs of all learners in a purposefully diverse community, to the pursuit of its articulated learning objectives, to rigorous self-assessment, critical inquiry, and active learning. The University of Guelph educates students for life and work in a rapidly changing world.

The University of Guelph invites public scrutiny of the fulfillment of its mission, especially by the people of Ontario, to whom it is accountable.