II. The University

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 seven colleges - College of Arts, College of Biological Science, College of Management and Economics, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, the Ontario Agricultural College, and the Ontario Veterinary College. In addition, the University has a regional campus in Ridgetown.

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, business, social sciences and humanities. Faculty at the University of Guelph have won more prestigious 3M Fellow teaching awards than faculty at any comparably-sized university in Canada. Our students are no less accomplished: 99.3 percent of first-year students enter with an average of at least 75 percent.

A total of 18,667 students attend Guelph, consisting of 16,617 full- and part-time undergraduates and 2,050 full- and part-time graduate students. The University of Guelph is a highly residential community, with approximately 5,260 students living in campus residences. In addition, the University of Guelph-Humber serves 1,955 full- and part-time undergraduates.

With close to $150 million in annual research funding, the University of Guelph is one of the country's top research institutions. Among its researchers, Guelph numbers 25 Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. A 12-hectare 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 an 86,000-square-foot research complex adjacent to campus, and made the University responsible for Ontario's agricultural college at Ridgetown, the Horticultural Research Institute of Ontario and OMAFRA's Laboratory Services. With its enhanced partnership, its research park, Bioproducts Discovery & Development Centre 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 about 700 international students from 100 countries and maintains 61 study abroad programs (56 exchange and five semester abroad) with 27 countries. About 500 University of Guelph students study abroad each year. The University of Guelph has 60 public- and private-sector partners in 30 countries, and participates in Canadian International Development Agency projects worth a total of $16.5 million around the world. The University offers more than 200 distance degree credit courses to more than 16,000 course enrolments. Our graduates are Guelph's ambassadors to the world with more than 90,000 alumni in 145 countries.