University of Guelph

The University of Guelph is a comprehensive public research university in Guelph, in Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College, the MacDonald Institute, and the Ontario Veterinary College, and has since grown to an institution of over 30,000 students from more than 140 countries and employs 823 full-time faculty as of 2025. It offers 94 undergraduate degrees, 48 graduate programs, and 6 associate degrees in many different disciplines.
The university conducts a significant degree of research and offers a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. According to the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, the university's Hospitality and Tourism Management program has Canada's highest research index.
The faculty at the University of Guelph hold 31 Canada Research Chair positions in the research areas of natural sciences, engineering, health sciences and social sciences. Academic achievements include the first scientific validation of water on Mars, Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer on board the Curiosity rover, and the Barcode of Life project for species identification.

History

The University of Guelph traces its origins back to when the Ontario government bought of farmland from Frederick William Stone and opened the Ontario School of Agriculture on May 1, 1874, which was renamed the Ontario Agricultural College in 1880. The Experimental Farm has been part of the original project along with the museum of agriculture and horticulture. Its first building was Moreton Lodge, located where Johnston Hall now stands, which included classrooms, residences, a library, and a dining room. In 1874, the school started an apiculture department, teaching students about bees and beekeeping, in a dedicated building. In more recent years, the program has continued at the Honey Bee Research Centre located in the Arboretum, continuing research on honeybee health, providing apiculture and beekeeping courses and offering "many other educational experiences" including informative videos for beekeepers.
The Macdonald Institute was established in 1903 to house women's home economics programs, nature studies, and some domestic art and science. It was named after its financier, Sir William Macdonald, who worked to promote domestic sciences in rural Canada, and founded Macdonald College and McGill University College of British Columbia. The Ontario Veterinary College, founded in Mimico in 1862, was moved to Guelph in 1922. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith was an undergraduate at the college. In 1919 the Ontario Agricultural College aimed at recruiting "farm boys" with a low cost, two-year program and "the lowest possible rate" for room and board.
The Ontario Legislature amalgamated the three colleges into the single body of the University of Guelph on May 8, 1964. The University of Guelph Act also brought about the Board of Governors to oversee administrative operations and financial management, and the Senate to address academic concerns. The non-denominational graduate and undergraduate institution was, and remains known especially for the agricultural and veterinary programs that shaped it.
Wellington College was established shortly after the University of Guelph Act, and five years later, was split three ways into the College of Arts, which exists in the present day, the College of Physical Science and the College of Social Science. The Macdonald Institute would also be renamed the College of Family and Consumer Studies during the split. After this split, the University of Guelph started reorganizing into its present-day form, starting from the establishment of the College of Biological Sciences in 1971. The College of Physical Science would be married to the OAC's School of Engineering in 1989, creating the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. The College of Social Science and the College of Family and Consumer Studies were joined to create the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences in 1998. Finally, the College of Management and Economics would be established from the segregation of offered business, management and economic degrees and courses in 2006.
The university is named after the city. Guelph comes from the Italian Guelfo and the Bavarian-Germanic Welf also known as Guelf. It is a reference to the reigning British monarch at the time Guelph was founded, King George IV, whose family was from the House of Hanover, a younger branch of the House of Welf was sometimes spelled as Gwelf.

Campuses

Main campus

Campus safety is provided by the University of Guelph Campus Community Police, First Response Team and Fire Safety officers. The main campus is approximately a 1 hour drive west of Toronto. It is 412 hectares, which includes a 12-hectare Research Park and a 165-hectare arboretum.

Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) campuses

The Ontario Agricultural College had a network of campuses and research stations throughout Ontario which were operated by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. At one time, courses were offered in English in Guelph, Kemptville and Ridgetown, and in French at Campus d'Alfred near Ottawa. From 1889 to 1961, this college published the OAC Review, a magazine published by and for students, with topics on everything from political and social events to photographs from around campus.
In 2014, the University of Guelph announced that academic programmes at the Alfred and Kemptville campuses would close after the existing students completed their studies. In early 2017, the University of Guelph web site clearly indicated that this institution was no longer offering programs at either location.
The OAC does operate in Guelph and at the campus in Ridgetown, Ontario at the former Ridgetown College of Agricultural Technology, on over. It does not offer degree programs in this location. Instead, the focus is on technology transfer, with two and three year diploma programs. Specialties are agriculture, veterinary technology, environmental management and horticulture. This location also offers one-year certificate programs in performance horse handling and veterinary office administration. There is also an apprenticeship program for Dairy Herdsperson.

University of Guelph-Humber

The University of Guelph-Humber is a satellite campus created by a partnership in 2002 between the University of Guelph and Humber College. Located on Humber's North Campus in Toronto, it offers seven four-year academic programs that grant an honours degree from the University of Guelph and a college diploma from Humber College.
In the fall of 2015, there were 4,174 full-time and 503 part-time undergraduate degree students enrolled at the Guelph-Humber campus.

Academics

Joint graduate programs

Guelph-Waterloo Centre for Graduate Work in Chemistry and Biochemistry is one of Canada's largest and most successful graduate schools.
Guelph-Waterloo Physics Institute is a joint graduate program offered by the Departments of Physics at the University of Waterloo and Guelph.
Colleges

The University of Guelph is composed of eight colleges, delivering leading teaching and research across a range of disciplines:

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Facilities and plans

The War Memorial Hall was erected in 1924 of stone-cut limestone by the ; The landmark building was designed by architect Harry Reginald Coales as a lecture hall or theatre to honour students who had enlisted and died in the First World War. Two bronze tablets in the Memorial Chapel remember the alumni who died in the First World War and in the Second World War. Johnston Hall, a signature symbol of the university, was built in 1931, taking the place of the torn-down Moreton Lodge and becoming the home for the OAC Administration. The Johnston Clock tower overlooks Winegard Walk and is visible from much of the campus. The building also overlooks Johnston Green, a popular location for recreational sporting activities and outdoor concerts.
Rozanski Hall is in the heart of the campus. Equipped with electronic white boards, laptop sound, picture and wireless internet and high luminance video/data projectors, Rozanski Hall accommodates over 1,500 students in several lecture halls.
is a state-of-the-art classroom and research complex, built with the assistance of the Province of Ontario’s Super Build program, primarily for student learning and scientific research.
Summerlee Science Complex atrium was renamed Waasamowin, which means "to be bathed in light," in 2024, in support of efforts to Indigenize science at U of G and support and retain Indigenous students in STEM. Waasamowin is one of the favourite gathering space for students, faculty and staff and can accommodate a gathering of 200 students. The complex is also home to , which is a group of research laboratories and is a modern, centralized and highly serviced space for large-scale advanced analytical laboratories and provides an unequalled range of capabilities for research and advanced education at the interface of the physical and biological sciences.
Originally built in the 1940s and expanded in the 1950s, the W.F. Mitchell Athletic Centre was upgraded and expanded to keep up with university and community's needs in the fall of 2016. After a student referendum in 2010, students choose to contribute $45 million to the innovation of the W.F Mitchell Athletic Centre. One of the major focuses on the new building was being able to accommodate the growth in Guelph's population since the 1950s. The new 170,000-square-foot Athletic Centre serves as an all purpose building, supporting students, athletes, and the public in a variety of new spaces such as a 22,000-square-foot fitness room, multiple gymnasiums, and a rock-climbing wall. It also includes multiple swimming pools, a jogging track, and a variety of fitness programs.
On June 25, 1988, No. 4 Wireless School Association erected a bronze plaque as a war memorial the Royal Canadian Air Force No. 4 Wireless School, which was located on the campus ; the plaque honours the memory of their comrades who died in the armed service of Canada during World War II.