Виктория-колледж: История и архитектура университета Торонто

Constituent college of the University of Toronto, Canada
other educational institutions with a similar name

Victoria University is a federated university, which forms part of the wider University of Toronto. The school was founded in 1836 by the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Canada as a nonsectarian literary institution. Victoria is situated in the northeastern part of the University of Toronto campus, adjacent to the University of St. Michael's College and Queen's Park. Among its residential halls is Annesley Hall, a National Historic Site of Canada. A major centre for Reformation and Renaissance studies, the university is home to international scholarly projects and holdings devoted to pre Puritan English drama and the works of Desiderius Erasmus.

Victoria University borders Queen's Park, northeast of the University of Toronto's main campus alongside St. Michael's College. The Victoria College Building, colloquially called Old Vic, is an example of Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style, built in 1891. The architect was W. G. Storm, who died shortly after its completion. The campus is centred on the main quadrangle of Victoria, outlined by the Upper and Lower Houses of Burwash Hall. West of the Lower Houses is the new Lester B. Pearson Garden of Peace and International Understanding and the E. J. Pratt Library beyond it. From the eastern side of the building, the Upper Houses look out at Rowell Jackman Hall and the Lower Houses see the St. Michael's College residence of Elmsley. The only exceptions are the view from Gate House's tower that looks down St. Mary's Street and the view from the south side of Bowles Gandier house, which looks upon the main quadrangle of the University of St. Michael's College. E. J. Pratt Library is the main library of Victoria University. It was built in 1961 and is located at the south end of the quadrangle. The site of the library and the adjacent Northrop Frye Building was originally on the route of Queen's Park Crescent. The road was pushed south into Queen's Park to make way for the new buildings.

Victoria College is well known for its historic residence buildings and tight knit residence community. Annesley Hall is the oldest residence building at Victoria College, built in 1903 and renovated in 1988. It is a National Historic Site of Canada located across from the Royal Ontario Museum. Annesley Hall remains an all female residence – the first university residence built specifically for women in Canada. Burwash Hall was constructed in 1913, originally known as "the men's residences". It was named after Nathanael Burwash, a former president of Victoria. The building is an extravagant Neo Gothic work with turrets, gargoyles, and battlements. The building is divided between the large dining hall in the northwest and the student residence proper. The residence area is divided into two sections. The Upper Houses, built in 1913, consist of: North House, Middle House, Gate House, and South House. The Lower Houses were built in 1931 and were originally intended to house theology students at Emmanuel College, whose main building was opened the same year. First House, Nelles House, Caven House, Bowles Gandier House are now mostly home to undergraduate Arts and Science students. Before the 1995 renovations, the entire building was male, but co ed living was slowly introduced with Gate House being the last to convert in 2007. Margaret Addison Hall was built in 1959 as an extension of women's residence rooms. It converted to co ed in the 1990s and features seven floors with communal washrooms. Rowell Jackman Hall is the newest of the residence buildings, constructed in 1993. It features an apartment style residence with each room divided into four suites with a common area. Rowell Jackman Hall is named after Mary Rowell Jackman, whose son Hal Jackman made a substantial donation to the project. It stands just east of Burwash Hall on Charles St. and is west of St. Michael's College's Loretto College. Before Rowell Jackman Hall was built, the site was home to a parking lot and the historic Stephenson House. Stephenson House was a community involvement residence at Victoria University from 1939–2010, but has since become defunct. The House hosted ten undergraduate students per year, self governed and self regulating with a separate application and selection process. It last functioned as a residence in the 2009–2010 academic year.

Victoria University is governed bicamerally by the Victoria University Board of Regents and the Victoria University Senate. These bodies are represented by faculty, administrators, elected students and alumni. The colleges are governed by the Victoria College Council and Emmanuel College Council. College councils are represented by faculty, administrators and elected and appointed students. Victoria's governing charter was most recently amended in 1981, with the enactment of the Victoria University Act. Victoria is presently the wealthiest college at the University of Toronto by net assets. In part this has been because of alumni donations, but much of the growth is specifically due to the rapidly increasing value of Victoria's large real estate holdings in downtown Toronto. The E. J. Pratt Library is the main library in the Victoria University Library system, which operates under the wider University of Toronto Libraries system. The collection of approximately 250,000 volumes is geared towards the undergraduate programs at Vic and contains mainly humanities texts with a focus on History, English, Philosophy. The library also oversees Victoria University's institutional archives. The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies and its respective library collection is located within the E. J. Pratt Library. Its holdings fall into three main categories: rare books, most of which were printed before 1700 (currently about 4,000 titles), modern books and microforms (several thousand microfiches and reels). The library contains primary and secondary materials relating to virtually every aspect of the Renaissance and Reformation. In particular, it houses the Erasmus collection, one of the richest resources in North America for the study of works written or edited by the great Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. The collection holds a substantial number of pre 1700 editions of his works, including the Novum Instrumentum of 1516. Emmanuel College Library is the theological library of the Victoria University Library system, also operating under the wider University of Toronto Libraries system. The library is noted for its beauty and is a frequented spot by theological and undergraduate students alike, hosting a sizable theological collection specializing in spiritual care, worship, homiletics, biblical studies, and the Methodist tradition, among others. Special collections and rare books in Emmanuel's collection are held and can be viewed at E. J. Pratt Library.

The undergraduate academic programs of Victoria College include Literary Studies, Semiotics and Communication Theory, Renaissance Studies, and the Vic Concurrent Teacher Education Program (developed in conjunction with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education). Other academic offerings of note include the first year undergraduate programs Vic One and Vic First Pathways. The Vic One program, launched in 2003, is an academic opportunity for first year students at the University of Toronto to build communication and leadership skills in a small classroom setting. Applications typically open in December for any student who is applying to the University for enrolment in the following September. The Vic One program supplements a student's primary program of study in the form of weekly small group seminars and guest lectures from professors, visiting artists, writers, ambassadors and other public figures. Enrolment in each academic stream is limited to 25 students, with a maximum of 250 students in the program each year.