In recent days, you may have heard that the University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM) has declared an intention to expand into Brampton and that UTM will be meeting with the City of Brampton’s blue ribbon panel to discuss this possibility.
Sheridan has always supported a new graduate and research oriented university for Brampton. In August this year, Sheridan was among the first groups to be invited to present to the panel which is making recommendations to city council on Brampton’s requirements for a university.
We support UofT’s entry into Brampton and expect that it will offer further opportunities to expand our existing relationship with UTM and create even greater access to post-secondary education for more residents of Brampton.
Sheridan’s presence in and connection to Mississauga extends back 40 years, with the creation of our first joint degree with the University of Toronto – the Bachelor of Art and Art History. Since then, we have established another two degrees with UTM – the Bachelor of Communication, Culture and Information Technology and the Bachelor of Theatre and Drama Studies. The partnership works because of the complementary strengths of our institutions, with UofT strong in theory and Sheridan strong in applied learning. Last year, almost 1,400 students were enrolled in these three joint programs offered by Sheridan and UTM.
With the addition of our new campus in Mississauga in 2011, we have also seen growing demand for our programs in this city, with over 3,200 students enrolled at HMC, over half of which (approximately 1,800 are from Mississauga with another 370 coming from Brampton).
Our Davis Campus in Brampton is currently our largest campus, being home to 11,550 students. While a good proportion of these students (approximately 4,700) are from Brampton, almost 2,400 are from Mississauga.
Sheridan is proud to be an institution that creates both academic and geographic pathways for students in our home regions of Halton and Peel. Sheridan’s journey toward university status continues. Our model for Sheridan University is one that celebrates undergraduate teaching and applied learning and one that will successfully co-exist with any research-oriented university that may come to Brampton.
We look forward to continued collaboration with UTM and we are confident in the complementary and exciting opportunities that lay ahead.