U of T will cut 250 PhD spots and create 500 new Masters program spaces for September 2010. The change comes into effect for this year’s admissions cycle.
The university pushed for more Masters spaces, citing student demand, and the request was recently granted by Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities.
“What we were hearing from the ground up—from the departments and faculties—is that there is tremendous pressure on many of our MA programs—more so than on our PhD programs,” wrote Cheryl Misak, U of T VP and provost, in an email. According to Misak, the change will have no effect on current PhD students, as the university will transform planned-for PhD spots into Masters spots.
Misak said she does not have a breakdown of which divisions will get new spots, and that the university will re-allocate spaces as student demand shifts.
In an internal memo, Robert Baker, vice dean of research and graduate programs, asked graduate chairs and directors to adjust their intake targets for Fall 2010.
“To ensure we don’t exacerbate our current financial difficulties it is extremely important that we control our intake of BIU eligible students for 2010-2011 and beyond,” reads the memo. Each student that the university reports to the province for funding qualifies for a specific number of BIUs, depending on their program and level of study.
Baker asked each unit to aim to enrol one or two fewer than the number expected to graduate in this year’s BIU eligible cohort, and not to increase international student enrolment. “Any unit that exceeds their 2010-2011 targets for international students will be charged $20,000 per student over the target for every year the unit exceeds its target; this charge reflects the difference in cost of BIU eligible versus non-BIU eligible students,” he wrote.
In an email to The Varsity, Baker said there is a need to balance the enrolment in Masters and PhD programs. “[The Faculty of Arts and Science] has rapidly expanded its PhD enrolments over the past five years and, now that the government’s expansion plan is coming to an end, we are fine tuning our numbers to help ensure other divisions within the U of T have sufficient spaces to meet their aspirations for PhD and Masters programs,” he wrote.
