II. The University

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History

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--College of Arts, College of Biological Science, College of Physical and Engineering Science, College of 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: 99.8 percent of first-year students enter with an average of at least 75 percent.

A total of 16,905 students attend Guelph, including 15,880 full- and part-time undergraduates, 208 full- and part-time undergraduates at the University of Guelph-Humber, and 1,859 full- and part-time graduate students. The University of Guelph is a highly residential community, with approximately 5,260 students living in campus residences.

With over a $100 million in annual research funding, the University of Guelph is one of the country's top research institutions. Among its researchers, Guelph numbers 19 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 and Food (OMAF) relocated OMAF employees to an 86,000-square-foot research complex adjacent to campus, and made the University responsible for Ontario's agricultural colleges at Alfred, Kemptville and Ridgetown, the Horticultural Research Institute of Ontario and OMAF'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 700 international students from 100 countries and maintains 58 study abroad programs (52 exchange and 6 semester abroad) with 30 countries. There are about 450 University of Guelph students studying abroad. The University of Guelph has 60 public- and private-sector partners in 30 countries, and participates in Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) projects worth a total of $16.5 million around the world. The University offers more than 150 distance degree credit courses to more than 13,500 course enrolments. Our graduates are Guelph's ambassadors to the world with more than 71,000 alumni in 130 countries.