Bachelor of Information Program Highlights
The Bachelor of Information (BI) program integrates design thinking, critical scholarship, and experiential and work integrated learning to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to design and critique complex technical, political, and cultural responses to new and enduring information practices.
Studio-based courses are an important part of the BI program. These courses use hands-on and experiential learning to engage and elaborate the intellectual content of the program’s lecture-based courses, while providing students with familiarity and expertise in common types of software and hardware suites.
All BI students complete a practicum course and a capstone project.
All Bachelor of Information students complete a Practicum course for academic credit in the summer between the first and final years of the BI. Students gain invaluable professional and hands-on experience. They build their resumes with the guiding support of a faculty member. Students are able to customize the practicum to their interests and goals not only in the type of work but also the type of organization.
BI students complete a self-guided and collaborative capstone project in their final year. Students will identify a design problem, design a creative solution to the problem using a combination of skills from previous courses, and share their project with the class. Students will present the outcomes of their project in both visual and written formats.
Program Essentials
Details about admissions requirements for domestic and international students can be found on the BI Applications page.
Information about tuition fees, financial aid, and scholarships and awards can be found on the Money Matters page.
Students benefit from being at a smaller Faculty with a sense of community while also enjoying the perks of being part of U of T with all its resources.
BI Program Requirements and Details
The BI consists of 22 half-credit courses (11 credits total) taken over five terms (fall/winter/summer/fall/winter)
9Required lecture-based courses
2Practicum-based courses
6Required studio-based courses
1Practicum
4Electives
Courses
INF301H1 Introduction to Information and Power 0.5 Credits
INF302H1 Integrative Approaches to Technology and Society 0.5 Credits
INF311H1 Information in the Cultural Imagination 0.5 Credits
INF312H1 Worlds Become Data 0.5 Credits
INF313H1 Computational Reasoning 0.5 Credits
INF314H1 Information, Memory and Culture 0.5 Credits
INF315H1 Information Practice in Organizations 0.5 Credits
INF351H1 Information Design Studio I: How to Make a Computer and Why 0.5 Credits
INF352H1 Information Design Studio II: How to Design 0.5 Credits
INF353H1 Information Design Studio III: Designing Interactive Systems 0.5 Credits
INF401H1 From Classroom to Workplace 0.5 Credits
INF402H1 Work Integrated Learning Practicum 0.5 Credits
INF411H1 Information in the Global Economy 0.5 Credits
INF412H1 Data Analytics: Informed Decisions with Data 0.5 Credits
INF413H1 Information Policy in Canadian and Global Contexts 0.5 Credits
INF451H1 Information Design Studio IV: Information Visualization 0.5 Credits
INF452H1 Information Design Studio V: Coding 0.5 Credits
INF453H1 Capstone Project 0.5 Credits
INF330H1 Born-Digital Culture 0.5 Credits
INF430H1 Music, Information, and Technology 0.5 Credits
INF440H1 Surveillance & Privacy in Digital Society 0.5 Credits
INF450H1 Project Management with Agile 0.5 Credits
INF481H1 Special Topics in Information Studies I: UX 0.5 Credits
INF482H1 Special Topics in Information Studies II: AI 0.5 Credits
INF499H1 Reading Course 0.5 Credits
Special topics courses offer in-depth examinations of selected topics in Information. These will change from year to year, and may include, for example, Surveillance, Audiences, Information and Political Activism, Critical Histories of Information Technologies, Digital Material Culture, Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning, Advanced Topics in Policy, Advanced Topics in UXD, Advanced Topics in ISD, Advanced Topics in Info and Culture
Latest News
BI program proves catalyst for change
When Oliver Daniel opened a University of Toronto newsletter back in 2021, he wasn’t looking for a new academic path. But a familiar face and a program he had never heard of – the Bachelor of Information (BI) – changed the course of his studies. At the time, Daniel was enrolled in Arts & Science, pursuing a double major in computer science and linguistics. Still early […]
BI capstone projects connecting technology and society
Final year students in the Bachelor of Information Capstone Projects course (INF453H) recently presented their projects, which bring interdisciplinary approaches to real-world challenges and demonstrate the breadth of information practice while integrating technical development and user research. The six student teams were mentored by Professor Maher Elshakankiri. List of Projects: Organizing the Block-by-Block Digital Collection The […]
New four-year Bachelor of Information degree launches!
Applications will open in fall 2026 for the new program, with students beginning their studies in September 2027 The new four-year Bachelor of Information (BI) degree is designed for students who want to understand both the technical and human dimensions of the digital world. The program prepares students to design, build, analyze and improve information […]
Black History Month: The artist as ‘Afronaut’ and historian
As part of their coursework, two BI students wrote about “Otherworld,” a multimedia exhibition presented at the Art Museum at U of T.
Careers for BI Graduates
The BI’s integrative, critical, humanities, and social science-based approach to information technologies and practices prepares students for vital and enriching careers in three areas:
- Products and Systems
- Policy and Research
- Information Management and Cultural Stewardship.
Sample job titles include:
- Business Analyst
- Data Scientist
- Design Researcher
- Digital Archives Assistant
- Information Specialist
- Interactive Media Designer
- Privacy Analyst
- Policy Analyst
- Social Media Strategist
- User Experience Designer
- Archives Assistant
- Information Management Coordinator
- Research Analyst
- Records and Systems Manager
BI Program Learning Outcomes
- Understand and assess the social, political, economic, and ethical entailments of information creation, ownership, stewardship, and circulation, especially in light of enduring and emerging ethical and political questions
- Analyze the complexity of information practices and the political, economic, technical, and cultural contexts in which they occur
- Critique the conceptual and philosophical foundations of representation and computation
- Critique, create, and use multiple tools and techniques of data creation, manipulation, and interpretation, and be able to learn to use tools that may be developed in the future
- Use the design process to understand, analyze and engage with complex questions of information practice
- Create practical responses to enduring and emerging problems relating to information technologies and practices in a manner that demonstrates ethical, cultural, and legal awareness
- Work collaboratively and professionally on interdisciplinary teams
- Present their work to audiences with various degrees of familiarity with the field of information and the specific questions the work addresses
- Identify their own skills and expertise and the necessity for enhancing that expertise, either through collaboration or continued learning.
- Develop, defend, and use methods of analysis of complex information practices and the political, economic, technical, and cultural contexts in which they occur
- Recognize recurring patterns of unresolved intellectual and social tension