Region : Ontario
City : Toronto
Web site : www.yorku.ca
York University (French: Université York) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university.
York University has approximately 52,300 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, and 295,000 alumni worldwide. It has eleven faculties, including the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Faculty of Science, Lassonde School of Engineering, Schulich School of Business, Osgoode Hall Law School, Glendon College, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Health, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Graduate Studies, the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (formerly the Faculty of Fine Arts), and 28 research centres.
York University participates in the Canadian Space Program and is home to Canada's only space engineering program.The Faculty of Science and Lassonde School of Engineering are Canada's primary research facility into Martian exploration, and have designed several space research instruments and applications currently used by NASA. York has pioneered several PhD programs in Canada, including women's studies. The School of Social Work is recognized as having one of the most socially responsive programs in the country. York's psychology program is the largest in North America. York University's business school and law school have continuously and consistently been ranked among the top schools in Canada and the world.
York University's Film Department houses Canada's oldest film school and has been ranked one of the best in Canada, with an acceptance rate comparable to that of USC School of Cinematic Arts and Tisch School of the Arts.
York's approximately 2,450 full-time faculty and academic librarians are represented by the York University Faculty Association. Contract faculty, teaching assistants, and graduate assistants are represented by CUPE Local 3903.
The 2014-2015 Times Higher Education World University Rankings placed York 226-250th in the world, placing 9-15th in Canada. The 2014 QS World University Rankings ranked the university 421-430th in the world. According to the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) rankings, the university ranked 401-500th in the world.
In terms of national rankings, Maclean's ranked York 7th in their 2016 comprehensive university rankings. The Higher Education Strategy Associates ranked York 8th nationally in Social Sciences and Humanities.
Several of York's programs had also gained notable recognition both nationally and internationally. In the QS World University Rankings 2013 ranking of history departments, York was placed thirty-third in the world, and third in Canada. In the Corporate Knights 2011 ranking of teacher-education programs in Canada, York had placed fifth. Osgoode Hall Law School (a Toronto's law school affiliated with the University in 1968 at the new Osgoode Hall building on the Keele Campus) ranked second in Canada, in Maclean's 2012 ranking of Canadian common law schools. In the Corporate Knights ranking of law programs in Canada, Osgoode Hall had also placed second. In the QS ranking of law programs, York had placed 42nd in the world, and fifth in Canada.
The Schulich School of Business had also gained national and international accolades. In the Corporate Knights 2011 rankings of MBA programs in Canada, the school had placed first. In the same year, the Corporate Knights had also ranked the school third in Canada for undergraduate business programs. In Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2011 rankings of MBA programs, York had placed second in the world, and first in Canada. In Bloomberg Businessweek's 2010 rankings of the best business schools outside the United States, Schulich had ranked seventh, the second highest of any Canadian business school. In Forbes 2010 rankings of the best two-year MBA program outside the United States, Schulich had ranked 10th in the world, the highest out of any Canadian business school. In CNN Expansion's ranking of MBA programs, the school had ranked 18th in the world, placing first in Canada. In the Financial Times 2011 ranking of MBA programs, Schulich had ranked 49th in the world, and third in Canada. In The Economist's 2011 full-time MBA rankings, Schulich had ranked ninth in the world, and first in Canada.
York University has eleven faculties, including the Faculties of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (which was formed in July 2009 by the merger of the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies and the Faculty of Arts), Science, Health, the Lassonde School of Engineering, Education, the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (formerly the Faculty of Fine Arts), Environmental Studies, the Schulich School of Business, Glendon College, and Graduate Studies. Some faculties' programs overlap: for instance, more than one house separate mathematics departments, although some of these are being merged; the Schulich School of Business offers undergraduate and graduate International Business Administration programmes and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies offers a Bachelor of Commerce with streams in Accounting, Business Research, Finance, Human Resources Management, Management, Management Science, and Marketing, as well as a minor in Business, to be taken in conjunction with a major in another discipline. The Schulich School of Business offers undergraduates with the option of pursuing a BBA or iBBA program with a component of mandatory exchange. Also, the Glendon and Schulich units are offering or are in the processes of preparing to offer degrees in public policy and administration. The University administration has, however, taken steps in some cases to unify departments in separate faculties, in part to support York's efforts to brand itself as a university focused on interdisciplinarity. For example, the Faculty of Health, opened on 1 July 2006, houses the School of Health Policy and Management, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, School of Nursing, and the Department of Psychology.
York University offers the first and largest graphic design program in Ontario York/Sheridan Design (YSDN). It is a four-year University degree delivered jointly by the two leading educational institutions of design in Canada (York University and Sheridan College), and is recognized throughout North America for maintaining the highest academic and professional standards.
The Osgoode Hall Law School moved from a downtown location to the York campus in 1969, following the requirement that every law school affiliate with a university. The law school has offered several flexible degrees available, including the Osgoode-NYU JD/LLB degree in conjunction with New York University School of Law. Osgoode Hall Law School of York University has been ranked the top law school in Canada in Canadian Lawyer magazine’s 2008 Law School Survey.
York University's Faculty of Graduate Studies offers graduate degrees in a variety of disciplines, and there are several joint graduate programmes with the University of Toronto and Ryerson University. It is the second largest graduate school in the Province of Ontario.
The Ph.D. students in the Social and Political Thought program have won the award for best PhD thesis in Canada. The School of Women's Studies at York University offers a large array of courses in the field, some of which are offered in French. The Canadian Centre for Germanic and European Studies is co-housed at York University and Université de Montréal. The Centre is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service.
The Art Gallery of York University houses the permanent art collections. The collection of 1500 objects includes Canadian, American, Inuit, and European mixed media, multimedia, installations, painting, photography, prints, drawings, sculpture, sketchbooks, film and video.
The School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD, formerly the Faculty of Fine Arts), offers programmes such as design, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, visual arts, music, dance, and theatre. York's Jazz Department was once overseen by Oscar Peterson. York also has a joint Bachelor of Design program with Sheridan College. York's Departments of Film, Theatre and Creative Writing (which is not affiliated with the Faculty of Fine Arts) offers programmes in film production/directing, acting, and writing respectively, producing many award-winning graduates. The founders of Toronto's Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival and CineACTION film theory magazine were graduates of York's Faculty of Fine Arts.
York's Dance department was founded by National Ballet of Canada's first choreographer Grant Strate.
York offers a Space and Communication Sciences undergraduate degree. York’s Centre for Vision Research has developed a ‘virtual reality room’ called IVY (Immersive Virtual Environment at York) in order to study spatial orientation and perception of gravity and motion. The Canadian Space Agency and National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) use this room to strengthen astronauts’ sense of ‘up’ and ‘down’ in zero-gravity environments. The room is a six-sided immersive environment made of the glass used in the CN Tower’s observation deck and includes walls, ceiling, and a floor made of computer-generated pixel maps. York's Faculty of Science and Engineering most recently took part in the 2007 NASA Phoenix Mars Mission.
York is also the only university in Canada with specialized programs in meteorological sciences at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Sources : Wikipedia, www.yorku.ca
