All community members are invited to deep-dive into TMU's diversity data via our Student Diversity Data Centre. It's a great way to explore concrete numbers that provide meaningful insights into the university's progress and challenges.
"By learning who's here and who's not, we can begin to make changes that break down barriers." That's a direct quote from a student expressing their appreciation of data. Yes, you read that right: data.
Numbers become fascinating when they serve as a pathway to better understand who is participating in our campus community and highlight where we still need to work together to provide better opportunities. That's why TMU is proud to celebrate the five-year anniversary of reporting data via the Student Diversity Self-ID Program.
We're proud of the successes that the data reveals and are eager to work on the gaps that still exist.
Remarkable response rate among students
Our first success is the engagement we achieved with our community. Over 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students have counted themselves in on this survey for a response rate of 98 per cent. People told us they want to be counted so that we can see who is here and who is not people want to contribute to this effort.
If you're one of them, thank you. If you have not yet engaged, please follow the instructions to count yourself in. Know that you can update your information and identifiers at any time.
TMU campus reflects the diversity of the Toronto Metropolitan Area
The university has also moved ahead in our goals to make the campus reflect the diversity of the city. As the 2023 data reveals, there is now more representation of racialized, Black and 2SLGBTQ+ undergraduate students on campus. They include:
- racialized undergraduate students (whose numbers have moved from 48 per cent in 2019 to 56 per cent in 2024)
- Black undergraduate students (who have seen an increase from 7 per cent to 8 per cent from 2019 to 2024)
- 2SLGBTQ+ undergraduate students (whose presence has increased from 8 per cent to 10 per cent from 2019 to 2024)
At the graduate level, improvements are also happening.
- percentage of racialized graduate students has increased from 39 to 49 per cent
- the number of Black graduate students has increased from 4 to 7 per cent
- 2SLGBTQ+ graduate students from 7 to 12 per cent
- graduate students with disabilities from 6 per cent to 9 per cent
Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Student Diversity Self-Identification Program and community members can explore the Student Diversity Centre for key insights into the data.
Addressing the gaps and areas of improvement
Despite this progress, there is still room for improvement. While the representation of undergraduate and graduate women students overall is high, it is still low in some programs, such as STEM fields. Faculties continue to dig deep into program-specific data to look for ways to improve access for underrepresented groups.
Explore the Student Diversity Data Centre for key insights
One way that TMU is helping to increase transparency is to provide a resource that allows anyone in our community to explore the data easily. Visit the Student Diversity Data Centre and use the tools to dig into the data by faculty, program and level of study (undergraduate/graduate) and explore representation in any of the six equity-deserving groups. We invite our community to engage with the data in ways that are meaningful to them.
"Making this data available to our community in new ways is an important step for increasing the usefulness of the Student Diversity Data Centre," says Tanya De Mello, TMU's vice-president of equity and community inclusion. "By making it easier to access and investigate this information, we hope to spark insights and initiate conversations about ways that we can further increase our diversity and equity for the benefit of our entire community."
If you have any questions about the Student Diversity Data Centre on our website or the Student Diversity Self-ID Program, the Research, Planning and Assessment unit of the Office of the Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion is here to support you. Reach out at diversitydata@torontomu.ca.
