ABOUT TRINITY COLLEGE
Trinity College in Toronto, Ontario, is one of the smallest and most prestigious colleges on the St. George Campus of the University of Toronto. The College has approximately 1,700 undergraduate students who are enrolled in the university's Faculty of Arts and Science, and about 140 students in Trinity's Faculty of Divinity, Canada's oldest Anglican theological school. Since its inception, the College has valued and fostered a high level of academic achievement.
Trinity was founded in 1851 by John Strachan, the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto. The doors of the original building on Queen Street West opened on January 15, 1852, the same year that Queen Victoria granted the college a Royal Charter.
The first woman student was admitted in 1884, and four years later Trinity established St. Hilda’s College for women, putting the college in the forefront of the movement for higher education for women.
In 1904 the college federated with the University of Toronto and became part of what is now known as the Faculty of Arts and Science. Though part of the university, the college has retained its distinctive character and some independent features, including its charter, governing bodies, administration, and control over its budget, endowment and maintenance.
Trinity moved to the St. George campus in 1925, occupying a choice location close to the other colleges, libraries and teaching departments of the university. The new St. Hilda’s opened in 1938, the final side of the quadrangle was added, and a large new chapel was built, followed by the construction of the Gerald Larkin Building in 1961 and the George Ignatieff Theatre in 1979. The Munk Centre for International Studies opened in 2000; the centre (now the Munk School of Global Affairs) is located in three beautifully renovated historic buildings, one of which houses Trinity’s John W. Graham Library. In 2006 part of the Gerald Larkin Building was renovated to provide a home for the University of Toronto’s Centre for Ethics.