Core curriculum

Munk One students sit around seminar table

As a Munk One student, you’ll study problems that are not limited to any one academic field. You’ll learn to recognize the array of tools that can be deployed to develop better insights and solutions to global challenges. Most importantly, you’ll learn to not only ask the right questions, but also to discover innovative answers.

The smallest of the first-year foundation programs at U of T, Munk One offers you the rare opportunity to work closely with professors and distinguished experts at the beginning of your university career and to form a tight-knit, small community within Canada’s largest university.

Your courses

MUN100H1: Global Innovation

Innovation has always been a key driver of economic growth, population health, and societal success. Transformative change has historically been linked to major innovations such as urban sanitation, pasteurization, the printing press and the industrial revolution. Currently, the opportunity to enhance life chances worldwide relies on innovating for the poor, social innovation, and the ability to harness scientific and technological knowledge. What precisely is innovation? When does innovation happen? Who benefits from innovation? How can innovation be fostered, and how do innovations spread? Relying on major global transformations and country-specific case studies (for example, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel and India), this course examines the drivers of innovation, the political, social, economic, and scientific and technological factors that are critical to promoting innovation and addressing current global challenges, and the consequences of innovation. Restricted to first-year students admitted to Munk One. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

MUN110H1: Peace, Conflict and Justice in the Indo-Pacific

In recent years, countries including Canada, India, Japan, and the United States have devised Indo-Pacific strategies in recognition of the rising importance of the region. The region now accounts for half of the world’s people, 60 percent of world’s GDP, and two-thirds of global economic growth. Devising effective solutions for the policy challenges related to the Indo-Pacific will be crucial to prevent catastrophic conflict and promote sustainable prosperity in the 21st century. In this class, students will examine the nature of policy problems with a global scope - in areas such as the management of geopolitical conflict, economic security, and human rights and transnational justice - and devise solutions tailored to emerging challenges in the Indo-Pacific. Restricted to first-year students admitted to Munk One. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

MUN130H1: Climate, Energy, and Power

Energy is at the crux of a range of pressing global issues, including climate change and the existential threat it poses across the world. This class uses energy – sometimes as a focal point, sometimes as an entry point – to examine a range of issues including inequality, emergent technologies and policy making in a global context. Restricted to first-year students admitted to Munk One. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

MUN140H1: Design for Social Change and Inclusion

Framed around a design challenge, in this class students work in teams to come up with an innovative, equity-focused approach to a global problem. To this end, the course includes modules on topics such as: collecting primary data (via interviews and/or focus groups); conducting secondary research; identifying beneficiaries’ needs; developing a mindset for social innovation; assessing feasibility and viability; and how to develop culturally responsive and relevant propositions. Restricted to first-year students admitted to Munk One. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Apply Munk One credits to other degrees

Munk One students enrolled in a PCJ Specialist program can count Munk One credits as 1.0 FCE toward their Cluster 4 requirements, and students in a PCJ Major program can count Munk One credits as 0.5 FCE toward their Cluster 3 requirements.