Massey College, Toronto

Massey College is a postgraduate residential college at the University of Toronto, established, built and partially endowed in 1962 by the Massey Foundation. Similar to All Souls College, Oxford, senior and junior fellows of Massey College are nominated from the university community and occasionally the wider community, and are elected by the governing Corporation of the college. The president of the University of Toronto, the dean of graduate studies and three members of the Massey Foundation are ex officio members of the corporation, headed by the master of the college. Members of corporation are elected for five years; the master is elected for seven years.

The college is well-connected with prominent figures of the national establishment, and is the sponsor and host of the annual Massey Lectures. It hosted the Man Booker International Prize of 2007.

History

Massey College was conceived by Vincent Massey, the 18th Governor General of Canada who attended University College as an undergraduate. Of the establishment of a new graduate college, Massey wrote, "It is of great importance that it should, in its form, reflect the life which will go on inside it and should possess certain qualities—dignity, grace, beauty, and warmth." The Massey Foundation, for which Vincent Massey served as a trustee, provided the financial endowment.