The Munk One program connects big ideas with global challenges.
A Munk One student is someone who wants to have impact – someone who wants to make a difference – in the global community. The program offers students a unique opportunity to participate in collaborative and engaged scholarship. Munk One students learn by doing, taking an approach that is both creative and systematic as we consider some of the most pressing and complicated issues facing the world.
A message from the Munk One Director
Munk One is designed to help you engage thoughtfully with these issues early on—by asking big questions, developing strong analytical and communication skills, and learning how ideas can be translated into real-world solutions.
About the program
Munk One at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy is an interdisciplinary academic program in global affairs for highly motivated first-year students. Participating in Munk One ignites intellectual curiosity, elevates knowledge of world affairs, and connects first-year students to the vibrant Munk School community. Munk One students are mentored by Munk One alumni and engage in innovative and policy-relevant challenging academic programming, including a case competition. Munk One students meet and engage with distinguished Munk Fellows such as current and former Canadian ambassadors, members of the federal and provincial public service, private sector innovators, influential journalists, and global affairs and public policy leaders from around the world. Students are encouraged to participate in the vast array of academic and professional opportunities offered at the Munk School, such as conferences, symposia, seminars, co-curricular activities, and faculty-led research projects. Munk One is an application-based, selective academic program that is limited to an enrolment of 25 students. Newly admitted students in the Faculty of Arts & Science (St. George campus) are eligible for admission. The objective of the Munk One Program is to introduce students to key global challenges, including socioeconomic inequality and poverty, human rights and global security, sustainable development, and the shifting geopolitical orders that shape power and decision-making around the world. The curriculum is carefully curated and sequenced to build students’ academic skills while exposing them to foundational debates and analytical approaches in global affairs. All four courses are delivered as small-group seminars that emphasize discussion, collaborative learning, and close engagement with faculty, and the program includes experiential learning and opportunities to apply knowledge beyond the classroom.
Students are exposed to a balanced mix of skills-focused and content-focused courses designed to build both analytical foundations and real-world problem-solving capacity. The program includes two foundational courses that develop the theoretical and analytical skills needed to understand contemporary global challenges. MUN 100: Global Innovation examines innovation as a driver of economic growth, population health, and social change. Drawing on contemporary and historical cases from around the world, students explore when innovation occurs, who benefits from it, and how policy can foster more equitable and inclusive outcomes.
MUN 140: Design for Social Change and Inclusion serves as the Munk One capstone course. In this hands-on, experiential learning class, students work in teams to tackle real-world problems in partnership with organizations addressing global challenges. The course emphasizes applied research, design thinking, collaboration, and iterative problem-solving, allowing students to translate ideas into practical, impactful solutions.
The second pair of courses focuses on key content areas shaping today’s global landscape: shifting global power dynamics and the disruptive effects of climate change and energy transitions. MUN 110: Changing World Orders examines how global power structures, institutions, and rules are evolving in an increasingly uncertain international environment. Students engage with debates about how world orders emerge and decline, and how states and other actors navigate periods of geopolitical transition, while strengthening their ability to analyze concepts, articulate arguments, and think collaboratively about policy challenges.
Building on this foundation, MUN 130: Climate, Energy, and Power explores the relationship between energy systems, climate change, and social and economic power. Students examine inequality, emerging energy technologies, and the regulatory and institutional frameworks that shape environmental policy at local, national, and global levels.
Courses in the Munk One Program are designed to provide students with a strong, transferable foundation that supports a wide range of programs of study across the University of Toronto. While some students choose to continue into Munk undergraduate programs, the analytical skills, global perspective, and applied problem-solving approaches developed in Munk One are equally valuable for students pursuing paths in the sciences, health, business, the humanities, and beyond. Wherever students choose to go academically, they carry with them the distinctive Munk imprint—critical and creative thinking, interdisciplinary curiosity, strong communication skills, and the ability to engage thoughtfully with complex, real-world problems.