Academic Orientation

All students must have a U of T Mail Plus (+) email account before the start of classes. Email is the main form of communication between the faculty, staff and students. Important notices and academic instruction will be communicated to students from faculty and staff by utoronto.ca email. Students are required to monitor their email on a daily basis. Students can create their own U of T email account after getting a T-card. Registered students automatically receive free support services for email usage. The Department will accommodate for any problems arising from the U of T email servers only. If students forward their @mail.utoronto.ca account to another server (e.g. gmail), the onus will be on the individual student to ensure they did not miss messages if their email account was full or server down.

All students are assigned a faculty advisor who can assist them as they navigate the program. In first year, students will be informed of the name of the faculty member who will act as their faculty advisor, generally for the duration of the program.

All students should ensure they have provincial health insurance. Students from other Canadian provinces should investigate whether they can maintain their home province coverage. Any shortfall may require supplementary insurance. International students are covered by UHIP, a mandatory health insurance equivalent to OHIP, which they pay with their fees.

OT students are automatically covered by this plan. The cost is included in the Graduate Student Union fee.  The plan pays for some medical expenses not covered by OHIP or UHIP. Students should consult with the GSU directly for plan details.

Lockers are located in the Rehabilitation Sciences Building for St. George students, and the Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex for Mississauga students. Students will be assigned a locker by the Department at registration which will be theirs for the duration of the program.

The T-Card Office at the University provides official identification for students. All new OT students must obtain a TCard, which serves as their primary identification card to access university services.

• St. George Campus Walk-In: Robarts Library, First Floor, 130 St. George Street
• Mississauga Campus Walk-In: CCT Atrium
• Telephone: 416- 978-HELP (978-4357)
• E-Mail: help.desk@utoronto.ca (St. George) or helpdesk.utm@utoronto.ca (Mississauga)
• Website: help.ic.utoronto.ca/ (St. George) or www.utm.utoronto.ca/iits/contact-us (Mississauga)

The Occupational Therapy Student Course Union (formerly the OT-PT Student Council) encourages participation in a variety of activities and events: athletic, social, academic, community and professional.  The new Course Union Co-Presidents will address new students during their Orientation Week to discuss the elections which are generally held in the first two weeks of the academic year to fill the remaining Student Union positions.

The Department aims to automatically enrol students in required courses prior to the start of a term. However, it is the student’s responsibility to ensure that their course enrollment is accurate in the Accessible Campus Online Resource Network, known online as ACORN. Students should access their academic history (courses) in ACORN and determine if the courses listed for a particular term correspond to those listed on the Program Schedule. This is of particular importance to students permitted to register in courses not aligned with the mandatory curriculum. If there is a problem, the student should inform the Program Manager immediately.

The University of Toronto utilizes Quercus as its official academic learning portal. Quercus will allow instructors to post course information and course materials, readings and assignments and provides functionality for basic discussion forum and other collaborative tools. All courses will use Quercus for their web-based component (sharing announcements, resource information and other course-related information).

This is U of T’s online student record system made available through ACORN. Throughout the program, students are responsible for keeping their personal information in ACORN current. Through ACORN, students are able to:

• Check their financial account balance and request to register without payment
• View grades and academic status
• Order transcripts

The Department has a variety of electronic equipment, such as laptop computers, in very limited quantities which are made available to students. You can borrow this equipment by visiting the OT department’s reception desk.

All room booking requests for group meetings must be made via email to ot.reception@utoronto.ca. Rooms should be returned to their standard set-up and left tidy for the next users.