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Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, although it also operates facilities elsewhere in Toronto. The university operates seven academic divisions/faculties, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Community Services, the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science, the Faculty of Science, The Creative School, the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, and the Ted Rogers School of Management. Many of these faculties are further organized into smaller departments and schools. The university also provides continuing education services through the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education.
The institution was established in 1948 as the Ryerson Institute of Technology, named after Egerton Ryerson, a prominent contributor to the design of the public school system and teacher's college in Canada West. In 1964, the institution was reorganized under provincial legislation, and renamed Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. Under that name, the institution was granted limited degree-granting powers during the 1970s. The institution was reorganized into a full-fledged university in 1993,and renamed Ryerson Polytechnic University. In 2002, several years after the university's school of graduate studies was established, the university adopted the name Ryerson University. In 2022, the university was renamed Toronto Metropolitan University, in response to concerns about Egerton Ryerson's influence on the Canadian Indian residential school system.
The university is a co-educational institution, with approximately 44,400 undergraduates and 2,950 graduate students enrolled there during the 2019–20 academic year. As of 2017, TMU had nearly 170,000 alumni. The university's athletics department operates several varsity teams that play as TMU Bold, competing in the Ontario University Athletics conference of U Sports.
History
During the Second World War, Howard Hillen Kerr, the director of the Training and Re-Establishment Institute, along with other members of the Toronto Board of Education, saw a need for specialized institutes to provide educational and vocational training for specific jobs for returning veterans. After a trip to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1943, Kerr envisioned a similar institute in Canada spanning "the gap" between secondary education and universities. Kerr's effort led to the Vocational Education Act and the creation of vocational schools and technological institutes in Ontario. Although several institutes had been planned during the war, their establishment was delayed by the advent of the Cold War and the potential need to remobilize. However, with the prospect of another war diminished greatly by 1948, the decision was made to open the Ryerson Institute of Technology, with class calendars hastily issued in August 1948.
The school was named after Egerton Ryerson, who established the Toronto Normal School in 1847 on the future site of the Ryerson Institute of Technology. He also helped develop education in Canada West as the region's chief superintendent of education, creating a model for publicly funding the training of teachers and working on Canada West's Education Act, 1846. The site of the normal school eventually developed into several buildings used by the province's Department of Education and what became the Ontario Agricultural College, Royal Ontario Museum, OCAD University, and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Later, the grounds were used by the Royal Canadian Air Force as a training centre during the Second World War.
The Ryerson Institute of Technology was officially opened on September 16, 1948, with approximately 250 students enrolled. Kerr served as the institution's first principal until 1966, when he became the head of the Council of Regents for Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology. The initial aim for the institute to serve as a career training and vocational school was reflected by its early enrolment, with the majority of its early students being enrolled in continuing education part-time night school programs, as opposed to a full-year academic stream. Initially the institute only offered two-year career training and vocational programs; its program catalogue was later expanded to include three-year diplomas by the early 1950s. Kerr mandated that English, physical education, and history be mandated in the school's curriculum in 1952.
Initially, plans were made to house the institute entirely within the Toronto Normal School building but the rapid growth of the student population made such plans impossible. Therefore, work on the first building built specifically for the institute began in 1958; Kerr Hall was completed in 1963. Several buildings had to be razed, including temporary barracks used during the Second World War and the Toronto Normal School (though its portico façade was kept). A number of other buildings were later built surrounding the courtyard.
The Ryerson Polytechnical Institute Act was passed by the provincial Parliament in 1963 to reorganize the institution. The institution was provided with its own board of governors and renamed Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1964. The nursing programs of three hospitals were transferred to the institution, the first one to be offered in a post-secondary institution in Canada. In 1971, the institute received limited degree-granting authority: Bachelor of Applied Arts and Bachelor of Technology, then Bachelor of Business Administration in 1977.
In 1993, the institute became a full polytechnic university and renamed Ryerson Polytechnic University, expanding the mandate of the institution to include scholarly research. The school of graduate studies was formally established in 1997. In June 2002, the institution shortened its name to Ryerson University to reflect its new scope. The beginning of the 21st century saw another construction boom on its campus.
After the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its report in May 2015, the university acted on several recommendations made out to post-secondary institutions in the report. As a result of Egerton Ryerson's association with the establishment of the Canadian Indian residential school system, the institution faced several calls to reevaluate the namesake of the university in 2017. In 2018, a university faculty member, Denise O'Neil Green, led the community-wide consultation to formulate a response towards the commission's report. She was later appointed the university's first vice-president for equity and community inclusion; the first vice-president position with this mandate in a Canadian post-secondary institution. In 2018, a plaque that describes Egerton Ryerson's role in the residential school system was placed next to the statue of Egerton Ryerson. After the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, some students and professors started using the name "X University" in May 2021 as part of a demand to have the university's name changed. In June 2021, the statue of Egerton Ryerson was toppled; its decapitated head was thrown into Toronto Harbour. The university stated that the statue will not be restored or replaced. On August 26, 2021, the university announced that it would accept the 22 recommendations of an internal task force, including the renaming of the university. On April 26, 2022, the university announced it would be renamed to Toronto Metropolitan University. The name change was formalized in December 2022, after the provincial legislature passed an amendment to the institution's governing legislation.