Media Releases

Canada’s Top University Kicks off #UofTGrad17, The Country’s Biggest Graduation

June 5, 2017

Toron­to, ON – Start­ing Tues­day, June 6 the next gen­er­a­tion of lead­ers will grad­u­ate from Canada’s top uni­ver­si­ty. This year, U of T will host 27 dif­fer­ent cer­e­monies (two more than in 2016) over 13 days for almost 14,000 under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stu­dents from the university’s three cam­pus­es in down­town Toron­to, Scar­bor­ough and Mis­sis­sauga.

They will be joined by 15 hon­orary degree recip­i­ents who have made notable achieve­ments in their fields. Among them: cel­e­brat­ed Inuk singer and song­writer Susan Aglukark; media per­son­al­i­ties  André Picard and Peter Mans­bridge, who retires as anchor of The Nation­al on July 1; renowned Cana­di­an pho­tog­ra­ph­er Edward Bur­tyn­sky; and Mar­garet O. MacMil­lan, a glob­al­ly rec­og­nized his­to­ri­an and pro­fes­sor at Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty.

“We are incred­i­bly proud of the Class of 2017,” said U of T Pres­i­dent Mer­ic Gertler. “Con­grat­u­la­tions to all of our grad­u­ates on their accom­plish­ments, and to their fam­i­lies who sup­port­ed them on their jour­ney to this mile­stone.

U of T wish­es our grads all the best as they enjoy their moment  dur­ing #UofTGrad17.

Quick facts on U of T spring con­vo­ca­tion 2017:

• First in Cana­da: the Black Grad­u­a­tion Cel­e­bra­tion on June 22
• The first “My Cam­pus Snapchat Sto­ry” post­ed for U of T and among the first ever post­ed in Cana­da
• First grad­u­at­ing class­es of Rotman’s Mas­ter of Finan­cial Risk Man­age­ment pro­gram and the Munk One pro­gram at the Munk School of Glob­al Affairs
• 1 Rhodes schol­ar: Stephanie Gaglione is a chem­i­cal engi­neer­ing major
• 8 mar­shals dressed in scar­let gowns to help stu­dents line up prop­er­ly for cer­e­mo­ny
• 12 weeks spent prepar­ing the 13,975 parch­ments (diplo­mas) for the Class of 2017, from labelling and stuff­ing envelopes to triple-check­ing names and degrees are cor­rect
• 15 hon­orary degree recip­i­ents: André Picard (June 6); B. Rose­mary Grant & Peter Grant (June 7); Pro­fes­sor Arthur McDon­ald (June 8); Lar­ry Phillip (Phil) Fontaine (June 9); Susan Aglukark and Pro­fes­sor Robert A. Hill (June 12); Cather­ine Lacav­era and Ree­ta Roy (June 13); Sir George Alleyne (June 14); Amal Basha (June 15); John M. Cas­sa­day and Edward Bur­tyn­sky (June 20); Mar­garet O. MacMil­lan and Peter Mans­bridge (June 21). As part of the fall con­vo­ca­tion, Mur­ray Sin­clair will also receive an hon­orary degree
• 27 indi­vid­ual cer­e­monies held over 13 days
• 60+ age range between old­est grad­u­ate − who is 78 years old − and the youngest − who is 18 − at spring con­vo­ca­tion
• 41 trained vol­un­teer read­ers read­ing out the names of more than 11,400 attend­ing grad­u­ates
• 75+  dif­fer­ent types of hoods, sym­bol­iz­ing dif­fer­ent degrees worn by grad­u­ates and aca­d­e­m­ic offi­cials
• 365 doc­tor­al degrees award­ed at spring con­vo­ca­tion
• 858 pro­fes­sion­al degrees, such as phar­ma­cists, med­ical doc­tors, lawyers and den­tists
• 2,888 master’s degrees award­ed at spring con­vo­ca­tion
• 9,824 bachelor’s degrees award­ed at spring con­vo­ca­tion
• 13,975 expect­ed grad­u­ates, with more than 11,400 peo­ple in atten­dance
• 14,000+ rental aca­d­e­m­ic gowns worn by stu­dents, fac­ul­ty and staff
• 31,593 guest tick­ets
• 500,000-plus U of T alum­ni world­wide

Fall con­vo­ca­tion for the Class of 2017 will be held from Nov. 6–10.

Con­tact:

Larysa Woloszan­sky
Media Rela­tions, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Mobile: (416) 371‑1575
Email: larysa.woloszansky@utoronto.ca or media.relations@utoronto.ca

For more infor­ma­tion:
U of T’s Con­vo­ca­tion Hub https://www.utoronto.ca/convocation
Full sched­ule of cer­e­monies http://www.convocation.utoronto.ca/events