Welcome to the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education.
I wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.
Our mission is to “develop, advance and disseminate knowledge about physical activity, health and their interactions through education, research, leadership and the provision of opportunity.” We deliver this mission through the synergies among the outstanding research, education and broad spectrum of co-curricular physical activity and sport programs that are all resident within the Faculty.
The importance of our mission has never been more urgent given what we now know about the personal health and well-being benefits of healthy active living, and the costs to our personal health and our health care system of physical inactivity. The scientific support is unequivocal: those who participate in co-curricular physical activity and sports programs are likely to reap huge benefits for their academic experience, their health, their social networks, and their leadership skills.
The Faculty offers outstanding undergraduate (BKIN) and graduate (MPK, MA, MSc, PhD) degree programs where the cutting-edge research of our faculty members is brought into the classroom. Our graduates work in universities, research institutes, schools, sports organizations, and with government programs nationally and internationally.
We are unique among the academic divisions in that we seek to engage every student on our campus in our physical activity programs; to achieve this goal we work hard to foster an inclusive and welcoming environment for the benefit of all. All registered University of Toronto students who have paid ancillary fees can access and take advantage of the Faculty’s diverse and comprehensive fitness and recreation programs as a fundamental component of their educational experience at the University. These opportunities are also available on a membership basis for faculty, staff and members of the wider community. With 44 intercollegiate teams, multi-tiered intramural leagues in 26 sports, extensive offerings in movement, fitness and dance, and many children’s classes and camps, we conduct one of the broadest programs in North America. The Faculty is also the largest employer of students at the University of Toronto.
Whether your interests are in the Faculty’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs in kinesiology, physical education and exercise science, the exciting research of our faculty members, the facilities and programs available for active healthy living, the partnerships that support Ontario’s high performance athletes, or the opportunities to excel as a Varsity Blue, I hope this website provides all the information, and inspiration, that you seek.
Gretchen Kerr
Dean, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education