About the Program
Learn more about institutional data governance
Institutional Data Governance
Institutional Data Governance, in the University of Toronto context, is the process that both establishes and provides consistent and clear guidance around creating, accessing, using, and defining the University’s institutional data, while managing the associated risks, responsibilities, and legal obligations.
What is Institutional Data?
Institutional data is any data held by the University to support its administrative operations (e.g., data about students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, finances, physical infrastructure, and teaching and research activities).
It encompasses structured datasets, unstructured content (such as documents, emails, and images), and data used by or generated from AI systems, regardless of format or where it is stored.
Research data held solely for scholarly purposes falls outside this scope, though institutional data used secondarily for research remains subject to the Institutional Data Governance Program.
Institutional data used secondarily for scholarly research remain subject to the Program – please see Institutional Data Access for Research (IDAR)
About Our Office
Find out how we can help you navigate data governance
Our Guiding Principles
The guiding principles that shape how we govern institutional data
Foundational Reports
Read the documents shaping data governance at U of T
Institutional Data Governance Program
The University of Toronto’s Data Governance Program provides the institutional framework for managing and stewarding institutional data assets.
Led by the Institutional Data Governance office, the program sets the guidelines, structures, and supports that enable U of T’s diverse community to work with institutional data confidently and responsibly.
Institutional data may include information related to:
- People: students, faculty, staff, alumni, and donors
- Activities: teaching, learning, research administration, grants, and university services
- Administration: finance, human resources, libraries, enrolment, and student aid
- Infrastructure: physical facilities, technology systems, and capital projects
Institutional data can be collected directly by the University, obtained through third parties acting on the University’s behalf, or generated through the conduct of University business.
The term includes information in any format or medium, such as databases, documents, emails, presentations, images, audio and video files, system logs, and data used by or produced through AI-enabled systems.
Scope note: Data created and used exclusively for scholarly research is not considered institutional data for governance purposes. However, when institutional data is used to support research activities, it remains subject to the Institutional Data Governance Program.
About the Institutional Data Governance Office
The Institutional Data Governance office provides strategic direction, frameworks, and advisory supports to Data Stewards across the university to ensure they manage their data responsibly and effectively.
The following summarizes key services and supports:
Data Governance Framework
Implementing university-wide data governance policies, standards, and procedures
Data Stewardship
Identifying and empowering Data Trustees, Stewards, and Custodians across the institution
Data Discovery & Literacy
Providing the essential tools and resources to help find, understand, and use institutional data effectively and consistently
Consultations & Initiative supports
Consulting on data governance issues and strategic initiatives
How Data Governance works at U of T
The Data Governance accountability is distributed and sits with the people closest to the data, while institutional governance bodies set direction and resolve questions that cross boundaries.
Governance of institutional data at U of T operates through a three-tiered structure:
The program operates through a federated model: the Institutional Data Governance Program sets institutional direction, while Data Trustees and Stewards distributed across units hold accountability for their respective data. This hub-and-spoke design respects local expertise while ensuring institution-wide coherence.
Guiding Principles
Foundational Reports
Towards an Institutional Data Governance Program Report
This report is a foundational document that outlines the goal, definitions, scope and guiding principles for the institutional Data Governance Program at the University of Toronto.
Implementation of an Institutional Data Governance Program
This program builds upon the first report by describing the partnerships, decision making structures, the role of the IRDG office and other support required to implement the Institutional Data Governance Program.