Performance Indicators

Performance Indicators for Governance has been developed heuristically since the mid 1990s and published every year since 1998. It aims to encapsulate the performance of the University across all areas of activity, with a focus on Research and Teaching.
Current and previous editions of Performance Indicators are available on the University website¹ and, since 2017, have been available via an interactive online data visualization tool (Tableau). The Performance Indicators for Governance include more than 110 interactive charts and tables and over 3,000 unique data points. The data come from a wide variety of sources including:

  • internal University administrative systems such as the student registration system and human resources information system;
  • federal and provincial governments and other non-governmental agencies;data sharing agreements with the Association of American Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE) and the U15 Data Exchange;surveys of our students and alumni; and
  • data sharing agreements with the Association of American Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE) and the U15 Data Exchange;
  • surveys of our students and alumni; and
  • third-party sources, such as databases of research publications.

Some indicators reflect the University’s absolute size in terms of its student body, research activity, and resources, while others reflect the University’s relative performance in proportion to its size. This report aims to find an appropriate balance between size-dependent and ratio-based indicators. This report frequently provides comparator data for the University’s peer institutions. These include Canadian peers who are members of the U15 and a select group of large, multidisciplinary, U.S. public institutions that are members of the Association of American Universities, namely: the University of Arizona; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Ohio State University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Washington (Seattle), and the University of Wisconsin – Madison.


There is a wide array of accountability reports published by the University of Toronto, many of which provide additional information to complement the Performance Indicators for Governance (see Appendix). The Performance Indicators report forms an important resource within this framework of accountability and transparency at the University of Toronto and aims to provide representative measures of performance across all areas of University activity. In cases where other University reports rely on identical data, this report endeavours to provide consistent data and context. However, given the different publication schedules, reports may differ when different time periods are assessed.


No set of aggregate metrics and indicators can capture the complexity, diversity, and richness of the University of Toronto. Nevertheless, robust indicators give a sense of the performance of the University over time and, where appropriate, benchmark the University’s performance against that of our peer institutions. The metrics and indicators in this report have been selected based on their relevance to the University’s mission, academic priorities, and the ability to capture robust and consistent data. In most cases, the metrics and indicators in this report show improving performance, but there is no intent to limit the scope of the report to areas of success; areas that warrant attention are also identified and used to inform future investments and allocation of resources.

The Performance Indicators Report (2019) can be found here or by going to the Reports section of this site.