Record Number of Female Students Join Canada’s Top-Ranked Engineering School

TORONTO — Women now account for 30.6 percent of first-year students in University of Toronto Engineering programs, a record for the faculty and a number that surpasses all other Ontario universities. It is the only engineering school in Ontario with female first-year enrollment of more than 30 percent.

National figures are expected later this year from Engineers Canada.

“U of T Engineering is a rich environment for talented, bright women to become engineering leaders,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “Diverse perspectives are the foundation of our culture of excellence in research, education, service and innovation. This achievement is encouraging as we continue our proactive efforts to foster diversity within the faculty, among universities and across the engineering profession.”

Today, one quarter\ of U of T Engineering’s undergraduate population is female, compared to a province-wide average of 19.7 percent. Across Canada and the United States last year, those averages were 18.9 percent and 19.9 percent, respectively. The faculty’s targeted recruitment efforts have been successful, with female undergraduate enrollment up from 21.3 percent six years ago, alongside rising entrance grade averages for first-year students that reached a record 92.4 percent this year.

“It’s exhilarating to be part of such a diverse and talented student community,” said Teresa Nguyen, a fourth-year civil engineering student and president of the faculty’s Engineering Society. “At U of T Engineering, it doesn’t matter what your background is — it’s about the ideas, expertise and reasoning you bring to the table.”

As a leader in engineering education and research, U of T Engineering continues to attract world-class faculty. The complement of female faculty members has more than doubled in the past eight years, from 21 in 2006 to 44 in 2014. Seventeen percent of faculty members are women, which is three points higher than the Ontario average (14 percent) and four points higher than the Canadian average (13 percent).

These numbers are expected to grow in the years ahead, as early-career faculty members move up in the academic ranks. More than a quarter (27.8 percent) of U of T Engineering’s associate professors (early-career, tenure-stream faculty members) are now women, compared to an Ontario average of 15 percent and a national average of 15.7 percent.

In the 2014–15 academic year, women accounted for three of the four new faculty members hired at U of T Engineering. In addition, all three of the Faculty’s 2014 Canada Research Chairs are women.

For more information, visit http://discover.engineering.utoronto.ca/