Guide for TMU international students · Updated August 2026
Toronto Metropolitan University lets you request academic consideration once a term without any medical documentation at all. Knowing when that applies — and which of three student unions you actually belong to — saves most students money before insurance enters the picture.
The short version. International students at Toronto Metropolitan University are automatically enrolled in the University Health Insurance Plan (UHIP), which costs $948 CAD for the 2026–27 policy year. Depending on whether you are a full-time undergraduate, a graduate student or a part-time undergraduate, you also pay into one of three separate student union health plans — TMSU, TMGSU or TMAPS — and they are not the same plan. Before you pay anyone for a doctor’s note, read the Policy 167 section below: TMU lets you submit one Academic Consideration Request per term with no documentation whatsoever.
Heads up on the price. TMU’s own international health page still states that UHIP costs “currently $792.” That was the 2025–26 rate. The plan-wide rate published by UHIP for 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027 is $948 — $156 more. We verified both pages on 25 August 2026. Budget for $948 and check your student account.
Key facts at a glance
In this guide
Before you pay for anything, understand how Toronto Metropolitan University actually handles missed academic obligations. The mechanism is the Academic Consideration Request (ACR), governed by Senate Policy 167: Academic Consideration.
The part students most often miss is in Section 5.3. TMU permits one request per term without any supporting documentation at all, in limited circumstances. You do not need a doctor. You do not need a certificate. You submit the request through the ACR portal and the system records that you have used it.
| ACR without documentation | ACR with documentation | |
|---|---|---|
| How often | Once per term | No stated limit |
| Final exams and final assessments | Excluded — documentation always required | Permitted |
| Absences longer than three days | Not covered | Documentation required |
| After you have used your one undocumented request | Portal restricts further attempts that term | Documentation required |
| Deadline to submit | Before the academic obligation’s due date where possible, otherwise within three business days of the missed obligation | |
Source: Toronto Metropolitan University Senate, Policy 167: Academic Consideration, verified August 2026.
Read the middle column again, because it is the part students pay for unnecessarily. If this is your first request of the term and it is not a final exam, TMU does not require a doctor’s note. Buying one anyway does not strengthen your case.
Two further points from the policy are worth knowing. First, on privacy: TMU states that “Students are not required to disclose specific details of the Extenuating Circumstances in support of their request.” A regulated health professional confirms the impact on your academic obligations. What you were treated for stays between you and the clinician.
Second, on who decides. The Senate Office does not grant ACRs. Your home program department does, and TMU is explicit that students must contact their program with questions about verification and about how to proceed with an instructor afterwards. If you are unsure whether your situation qualifies, ask your department before you spend money on documentation.
Policy 167 covers full-time and part-time undergraduate students, including law, graduate students, and students at the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education. It does not apply to students in the MD program.
Most Ontario universities have one supplementary student plan sitting on top of UHIP. Toronto Metropolitan University has three, split by student category, and this is the single most common source of confusion for TMU students trying to make a claim.
| If you are | Your plan | Run by |
|---|---|---|
| A full-time undergraduate | TMSU Members’ Health & Dental Plan, offered through Alumo | Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union (TMSU) |
| A graduate student | TMGSU Health & Dental Plan | Toronto Metropolitan Graduate Students’ Union (TMGSU) |
| A part-time undergraduate | TMAPS Health & Dental Plan | Toronto Metropolitan Association of Part-time Students (TMAPS) |
Source: Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union and TMU Global, verified August 2026. Contact your own union for plan details — TMSU explicitly directs students to do this.
All three exist to cover what UHIP does not: prescription medications, dental services, chiropractors and massage therapy, in TMU’s own listing. UHIP handles hospital and physician services, x-rays and annual medical exams. The supplementary plan handles the rest.
Before you pay for a private consultation, check whether you already have one. TMSU lists myvirtualdoctor among its member services — described by TMSU as a 24/7 online service offering free access to licensed Canadian physicians. It also lists mywellnessplan for therapy and mental health resources. If you are a full-time undergraduate paying into the TMSU plan, you have already paid for this. Use it first.
It will not complete a university health certificate for you — documentation is an uninsured service regardless of who provides the consultation — but for an actual medical problem it costs you nothing extra.
As of 25 August 2026, TMSU’s plan site states that Health & Dental Plan details for the upcoming policy year will be available in September on alumo.ca. We are not going to guess at the figures. Check the plan site in September for the fee, the coverage percentages and — most importantly — the opt-out deadline, which at Ontario universities typically falls within the first few weeks of September and is rarely extended.
One thing worth planning for now: at most Ontario universities, UHIP does not qualify you to opt out of the supplementary plan, because UHIP is a replacement for OHIP rather than extended coverage. Confirm your own union’s rule before assuming you can opt out.
UHIP is a not-for-profit plan created by Ontario’s universities. Coverage is underwritten by Manulife and administered by Cowan Insurance Group. Premiums are set per academic year ending 31 August, and they reset every 1 September based on claims costs across all UHIP members.
| Course start date | Member | Member + 1 dependant | Member + 2 or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 2026 | $948 | $1,896 | $2,844 |
| January 2027 | $632 | $1,264 | $1,896 |
| May 2027 | $316 | $632 | $948 |
Source: UHIP, rates for 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027. Canadian dollars, including 8% tax. Verified 25 August 2026.
The premium is charged to your student account alongside your tuition. TMU asks international students to confirm their enrolment by emailing [email protected] from their university email account with their student number.
UHIP at TMU is administered by International Student Support (ISS), which is also where UHIP questions, card problems and dependant enrolment go.
International Student Support (ISS)
ISS advisors are Regulated International Student Immigration Advisors (RISIAs) or Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCICs), and offer group advising, drop-in hours and one-to-one appointments.
If you have a spouse or dependent children coming to Canada, they must be covered too, and TMU states that they must be enrolled within 30 days of arrival. Missing that window creates gaps that are expensive to fix.
This section matters more at TMU than at most universities, and it is the reason a lot of people end up paying full price for care in Toronto.
UHIP is mandatory for international students in a degree program with a valid study permit. But TMU publishes a specific list of people connected to the university who are not eligible for UHIP. Among them:
The Chang School gap is the sharp one. Policy 167 explicitly covers Chang School students, so a Chang School student can be asked for a Toronto Metropolitan Health Certificate to support an Academic Consideration Request — while being ineligible for UHIP and, in most cases, for OHIP. If that is you, every medical visit and every piece of documentation is out of pocket, and you should know that before term starts rather than during it.
If you are in one of these categories, you need private coverage. TMU points students towards individual plans and towards settlement and community agencies that help newcomers ineligible for UHIP or OHIP.
Open work permit holders, including international students on a valid Post-Graduation Work Permit, may be eligible for OHIP. TMU sets out the conditions: proof of employment in Ontario for at least six months, a valid work permit for that period, your primary residence in Ontario, physical presence in Ontario for at least 153 days in any 12-month period, and at least 153 days of the first 183 days after establishing residency.
OHIP is free. If you qualify, applying is worth considerably more than any insurance decision on this page. The Ontario INFO line is 1-866-532-3161, and TMU notes that the nearest ServiceOntario office to campus is at College Park, lower level, 777 Bay Street. Our guide to seeing a doctor without a health card covers the waiting period in more detail.
TMU runs its own on-campus clinic, and it explicitly lists medical certificates among its services, alongside physicals, mental health assessments, assessments for common medical problems and immunizations.
TMU Medical Centre
Appointments are in person and TMU requires a mask. Online booking is available for minor procedures — non-mental-health prescription refills, referrals, vaccinations and STI testing. If you are a new patient, or the appointment type you need is not listed online, TMU asks you to phone or email instead.
Two limits are worth stating plainly. The Medical Centre is not equipped for major emergencies — heart attacks, strokes, broken limbs or any life-threatening injury. If an emergency arises on campus, call 911. And at the time of writing TMU states that ADHD assessment appointments are full and referrals are not being accepted.
The Medical Centre is closed every weekend and from 5:00 p.m. on weekdays during term. Downtown Toronto does not have a student-facing urgent care centre in the way Hamilton does for McMaster, which means the options after hours are narrower than students expect.
St. Michael’s Hospital is the closest hospital to campus, at 30 Bond Street. Unity Health Toronto states that its Emergency department is located at the corner of Victoria and Shuter Streets — a few minutes’ walk from the TMU campus at 350 Victoria Street. The hospital’s main line is 416-360-4000.
An emergency department is not the place to get a sick note. Emergency departments triage by severity, waits for non-urgent problems run to many hours, and attending for documentation alone takes capacity from people who need it. Go to an ED for an emergency. For a routine illness that needs a certificate, use the Medical Centre in hours, myvirtualdoctor if you are on the TMSU plan, or a telemedicine consultation.
Free options that are open when the Medical Centre is not:
When Policy 167 does require documentation, TMU accepts one of two things:
The word doing the work in both options is fully. A partially completed certificate, or a letter missing a field the certificate asks for, gets sent back — and by then your three-business-day window may have closed.
We do not host TMU’s form here, deliberately. Universities revise these documents, and a superseded version gets rejected — which harms you, not us. Download the current certificate from TMU’s own Academic Consideration Requests page, and take it with you to the appointment.
What a clinician completing it needs from you: the dates you were unable to meet your obligations, what those obligations were, and enough clinical detail to make an honest assessment. What they do not need to write down is a diagnosis. Policy 167 does not require you to disclose specific details of your circumstances.
Documentation is an uninsured service in Ontario. Completing a health certificate is not a medical service that OHIP, UHIP or any student union plan pays for. Whoever completes it — the TMU Medical Centre, a walk-in clinic, or a telemedicine physician — charges you directly. This is not a loophole or an upsell; it is how Ontario classifies paperwork, and it applies to every provider equally.
UHIP does not always pay the provider directly. Whether you are billed up front depends on whether the clinic belongs to Cowan’s Preferred Provider Network.
Inside the network, the clinic bills Cowan directly at UHIP rates and you pay nothing for insured services. Outside it, you pay and claim back — and UHIP warns that some providers outside the network charge more than UHIP pays, and the difference is yours to cover. Search the network at uhip-providernetwork.cowangroup.ca before you book, not after.
Practical points that save students money and time:
Not necessarily. Senate Policy 167 allows one Academic Consideration Request per term without supporting documentation, as long as it does not involve a final exam or final assessment. The ACR portal tracks this and restricts further undocumented requests once you have used yours. Documentation is required after that, for final exams and assessments, and for absences longer than three days.
$948 CAD for a student starting in September 2026, covering 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027, tax included. A January 2027 start is prorated to $632 and a May 2027 start to $316. Note that TMU’s own international health page still quotes “currently $792,” which was the 2025–26 rate — the current plan-wide figure published by UHIP is $948.
It depends on your student category. Full-time undergraduates are on the TMSU Members’ Health and Dental Plan, offered through Alumo. Graduate students are on the TMGSU plan. Part-time undergraduates are on the TMAPS plan. These are three separate plans run by three separate organisations, so check which one bills you before submitting a claim. TMSU’s plan administrator can be reached on 416-979-5000 extension 552358 or at [email protected].
No. TMU lists prescription medications, chiropractors, dental services and massage therapy as services not covered by UHIP. Those fall to your student union plan — TMSU, TMGSU or TMAPS depending on your category. UHIP covers hospital and physician services, x-rays and annual medical exams.
From September to April the Medical Centre is open Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed for lunch between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. From May to August it opens Monday to Thursday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with the same lunch closure. It is closed at weekends. The centre is at 181 Kerr Hall West, using the 31 Gerrard Street East entrance, and can be reached on 416-979-5070 or at [email protected].
The TMU Medical Centre is closed at weekends and after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays during term. St. Michael’s Hospital at 30 Bond Street is the nearest hospital, with its Emergency department at the corner of Victoria and Shuter Streets and a main line of 416-360-4000 — but an emergency department is for emergencies, not for documentation. Health Connect Ontario on 1-866-797-0000 gives free nurse advice around the clock. Full-time undergraduates on the TMSU plan have myvirtualdoctor, a 24/7 service TMSU describes as free access to licensed Canadian physicians. A telemedicine consultation is generally the fastest route outside clinic hours.
No. Policy 167 states that students are not required to disclose specific details of the extenuating circumstances supporting their request. A regulated health professional confirms the impact on your academic obligations. The accepted formats are a fully completed Toronto Metropolitan Health Certificate or a signed letter on the professional’s letterhead containing the full information that certificate requires.
Related guides
All figures, policy thresholds, addresses and hours on this page were verified on 25 August 2026 against the sources listed below. UHIP premiums reset each 1 September, student union plan fees and administrators change between years, and university policies are revised — verify before relying on any detail here. General information only, not insurance, academic or medical advice. In an emergency, call 911.
Flat $82 for every appointment (except insurance forms), a doctor could call in as little as 10 minutes, and you get a receipt for your UHIP claim.
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