Bachelor of Information

The BI is a second-entry professional undergraduate program. Students must have completed at least 20 half university-level courses to be considered for admission.

The Bachelor of Information (BI) considers the interactions between information technologies and social worlds, providing you with the conceptual tools and practical techniques necessary to understand and effect change in a data-intensive society. The BI program integrates design thinking, critical scholarship, and experiential learning.

Have you ever wondered?

• How does a database work?
• How Google ads seem to reflect what you have been thinking and talking about?
• How we will manage the growing pile of data, pictures, and records we are creating every day?
• How organizations are able to manage what they know?
• Why some companies have a hard time getting people to share information effectively?
• Whether AI will turn out to be dangerous?
• Why it’s sometimes really hard to find what you’re looking for on a website?
• Who owns your data on social media sites like Facebook & Instagram?
• What is “big data” and why is it so hot right now?
• What the impact of information technologies is on the environment?
• How your gender, age, religious affiliation, sexual orientation race or education impact your perspectives on privacy, both your own and those around you?

The Faculty of Information is considered to be among the world’s leading information and knowledge management schools. It is a Tier One Member of iSchool, an international association of universities that lead and promote programs for the information field worldwide The Faculty is adept at educating both professional practitioners and researchers and offers exceptional programs year-round in various disciplines

We are proud to have maintained the internationally-recognized American Library Association (ALA) accreditation since 1937, produced the first Ph.D. program in Information Studies in Canada, established the first iSchool in Canada and the only English-language Master’s program in Museum Studies in Canada. The UofT Faculty of Information is a Tier One Member of iSchool, an international association of universities that lead and promote programs for the information field worldwide.

Multidimensional

Learning is enriched within the Faculty of Information environment. Our Faculty of Information is a highly interdisciplinary educational institution at the crossroads of people, information, and technology. As an iSchool, our Faculty interests are diverse, examining information and communication phenomena of all kinds.

Here, you are given the flexibility to do so much more than simply following your current interests. Discover new interests and incorporate them into your studies. Consider pursuing double concentrations or double degrees and collaborative programs with other University of Toronto faculties in areas such as Book History & Print Culture, Sexual Diversity Studies, or Women’s Health. You can contribute to an interdisciplinary research institute, public exhibitions, and an annual Faculty of Information graduate student conference.

Vision

International excellence in research and education in Information.

Mission

The Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto is a research-led Faculty, educating the next generation of professional and academic leaders in Information, who join us in transforming society through collaboration, innovation, and knowledge creation.

Goals

To maintain world leadership in innovative scholarship

 - By establishing and executing a research agenda that reflects the coherent and collaborative Faculty of Information leadership in Information research
 - By acquiring external funding for the Faculty of Information research and international research partnerships
 - By managing effective knowledge transfer of Faculty of Information research
 

**To gain international renown for life-long, inquiry-centered education**

• By observing that the Faculty of Information’s teaching, in all its forms, is affecting teaching and learning practices in Information education generally
• By producing graduates who have knowledge and values appropriate to their future exercise of economic, cultural, and/or social leadership
• By creating a life-long educational continuum that incorporates programs at the undergraduate, professional master’s, academic master’s, and doctoral levels, with associated professional and executive development capabilities
• By exploring distributed education program opportunities in Information To contribute to shaping the social space of Information in Toronto, in Ontario, in Canada, and internationally
• By being a catalyst, conduit, and advocate, linking leading research in Information and innovations in professional and institutional practice, to practice changes in Information institutions and in the shaping of public policy
• By raising public awareness of Information and advocating for Information issues
• By enabling the life-long intellectual growth of our graduates, supporting them as they participate in shaping the Information society To foster initiatives that support sustainable social and economic development at local, regional, provincial and national levels
• By promoting awareness and recognition of the sectors in which the Faculty of Information’s graduates work and how their actions support prosperity development
• By educating graduates capable of facilitating innovation in the Information economy and society
• By fostering, where appropriate, the take-up of research (e.g. new Information methods and processes) that generate wealth
• By creating consultancy, partnership, and service initiatives to enable Faculty of Information outreach
• To nurture an enriching environment in which to study, research, and work
• By fostering an environment that encourages and supports innovation, creativity, and opportunity at all Faculty of Information levels, from students to leading researchers
• By providing superior support for faculty, staff, and students alike
• By creating teaching, learning, research, and communication spaces appropriate to our mission and goals