U of T drops international fees for most PhD scholars

TORONTO — The University of Toronto is stepping up efforts to lure top global scholars by slashing tuition fees for most international PhD students.

Starting this fall, the university says most international PhD students will be charged the same amount as domestic students.

The difference is huge — the 2017/18 fall-winter session cost international students at the downtown campus $23,692.14, plus ancillary fees, which vary by course.

Meanwhile, domestic students were charged $8,480.14, plus ancillary fees.

Graduate studies dean Joshua Barker says it’s part of a bid to “remove any barriers, financial or otherwise, that graduate students might face as they look to attend our university.”

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The change affects students in all years of a PhD program, but excludes those in doctoral stream master’s programs.

In the 2017/18 academic year, 1,179 of the school’s 6,145 PhD students were international students.

Global interest in Canadian universities appears to be strong.

The U of T says applications from international undergraduate students have increased by 35 per cent compared to this time last year.

That includes “major increases” in students from the United States, India, and the Middle East, says the school.

In 2017, acceptances from the U.S. increased by 66 per cent, and by 47 per cent for students from India.

But despite a spike in the number of applications, the number of international students has stayed at between 20 and 25 per cent of the total student population.

University spokeswoman Althea Blackburn-Evans says there are no plans to increase that ratio.

Many observers trace the spike in foreign interest to the U.S. presidential election in 2016, and so far Donald Trump has made good on promises to tighten travel restrictions and increase deportations.

Last year, the U of T said applications from U.S. students were up almost 80 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile, U.S. media outlets reported a decline in applications at U.S. schools from places including India and the Middle East.

Advanced Education Minister Mitzie Hunter says the move can only strengthen Ontario’s position as a place to foster innovation and attract global players such as Amazon, which is currently considering Toronto as the location for its second headquarters.

“We’ve always been a very attractive place for students,” says Hunter.

“One of the strengths that we have in Ontario is our diversity and having international students here studying with our students makes it a much richer conversation and really probably strengthens the thinking as ideas are being shared and explored.”

— With files from Shawn Jeffords

Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press