By Christevie Ngoma, University of Toronto Canada
Mental Health Services
As someone who struggles with my own mental health issues, I knew I would be looking for support at UofT. UofT have their own building in the middle of downtown where you can see a GP specifically for students as well as mental health service providers such as counsellors and therapists. They also offer group counselling sessions that you can do with other students! Compared to the NHS where maybe you’d wait a few months to book free therapy sessions, you can access a range of different therapists in a week. Similar to UoM they offer counselling sessions that you can access whenever you want. Their mental health services are very big and diverse, as I was able to access services that I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do so in the UK!
The Campus
UofT is a lovely campus with a really nice aesthetic! There are so many different locations like their new glass builds to their old vintage castles. I basically had a year to visit the sets of my favourite movies and tv shows, like Mean Girls, Pacific Rim and The Incredible Hulk. The Campus is also huge, studying PPE, meant that sometimes my classes were 20 minutes away from each other. St George Campus is basically spread over downtown, similar to LSE, UCL and Kings being in London. UofT also has other campuses like Mississauga and Scarborough which I would also recommend to visit!
Unique Courses
I think this can be applied to North American Institutions in General! UofT have a range of departments to offer such as African Studies, Equity Studies, Women & Gender Studies and so much more. Which you don’t find a lot in UK Universities, so I got to learn a lot of niche as well as broad topics. Outside of PPE I got to study: Women & Gender Studies in Post Colonialism, African Youth Languages and Global Christianities. As well as the Unique courses that they offer, the professors at UofT are really experienced in their field! We’ve had talks from people who have worked at the World Bank, Canadian Ministers and so much more.
I’d really recommend UofT for anyone who wants to do a deep academic dive into their favourite interests and topics whilst being in a fun town with loads to do!