Please reference the following definitions as you engage with the data available on the Student Equity Census Dashboard.
Definitions
Disability. Persons with disabilities comprise those who may experience barriers to full participation in University life as a result of long-term, temporary, or episodic physical, mental/emotional, sensory, or learning disabilities, including those caused by chronic health conditions.
Gender Identity. The Ontario Human Rights Commission defines gender identity as “each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is a person’s sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex.”
Indigenous Identity. Statistics Canada has defined Indigenous identity within the Canadian context as referring to whether a person identifies with the Indigenous peoples of Canada, including First Nations, Métis, Inuk (Inuit), and/or those who report being Registered or Treaty Indians (registered under the Indian Act of Canada), and/or those individuals who have membership in a First Nation or Indian band. For the purposes of the Student Equity Census, we also recognize and gather information on Indigenous peoples from other jurisdictions represented in our student body.
Racial and Ethnic Identity. Race and ethnicity are interrelated categories. The Ontario Human Rights Commission defines race as “socially constructed differences among people based on characteristics such as accent or manner of speech, name, clothing, diet, beliefs and practices, leisure preferences, places of origin and so forth.” Meanwhile, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation defines ethnicity as the “multiplicity of beliefs, behaviours and traditions held in common by a group of people bound by particular linguistic, historical, geographical, religious and/or racial homogeneity.”
Sexual Orientation is defined by the Ontario Human Rights Commission as a “personal characteristic that forms part of who you are. It covers the range of human sexuality from lesbian and gay, to bisexual and heterosexual.”
Trans or transgender is defined by the Ontario Human Rights Commission as “an umbrella term referring to people with diverse gender identities and expressions that differ from stereotypical gender norms. It includes but is not limited to people who identify as transgender, trans woman (male-to-female MTF), trans man (female-to-male FTM), transsexual, cross-dressers, or gender non-conforming, gender variant or gender queer.”
Additional information about the Student Equity Census instrument, including detailed definitions for the concepts/categories we use, can be found here. The development of this instrument was guided by the University of Toronto Student Equity Census Advisory Roundtable and in collaboration with various stakeholders across the University.
Filters
Campus. A student’s campus affiliation. For undergraduate students, each program is located on a campus. For graduate students, it is a combination of specific campus-based programs and individual student self-declarations.
Domestic/International: Students are classified based on their reported immigration status codes on November 1st. Domestic students comprise Canadian citizens and permanent residents. International students include the following: those with a student or other visa; non-Canadians with status unknown (e.g., refugees); and non-Canadians without a visa studying outside of Canada (e.g., by internet).
Level of Instruction. A student is either an undergraduate or a graduate student based on the operating grant funding formula’s program of study (FORPOS) code assigned by the Ministry. Undergraduate studies include both first entry (e.g. Bachelor of Science degree) and second entry professional programs (e.g. MD, JD), while graduate studies comprise Professional Masters, Research Masters and Doctoral programs.