Dalhousie University

Dalhousie University is a university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the largest post-secondary educational institution in the Maritime Provinces.

History

Dalhousie College was founded in 1818 by George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. Using money acquired from the duties collected during the occupation of parts of Maine in the War of 1812, Ramsay established Dalhousie as a college open to all people regardless of class or creed. At the laying of the cornerstone on May 22, 1820, Lord Dalhousie said that this University was "founded on the principles of religious tolerance." Dalhousie remained one of only three universities founded on secular constitutional premises until as late as the 1950s. Although it was technically founded in 1818, Dalhousie did not have a student population until about 1860.

Related Topics:
1818 - George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie - Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia - War of 1812 - May 22 - 1820 - 1950 - 1860

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Dalhousie was distinctive as an urban institution. This status was seen not only, in the early days at least, in the use of much of the college's lowest floor as vault space for Oland Brewery, but also in the consistent drawing of about one-third of the student body from the Halifax-Dartmouth urban area and in the college's ability to draw upon local professional populations in the establishment of professional faculties such as medicine (1868) and law (1883). Finances remained difficult into the 1880s, but by the end of that decade the accumulated donations of the wealthy alumnus George Munro had provided the stimulus that led to growth in student numbers and the emergence of Dalhousie as a centre of scholarship acknowledged throughout the dominion.

Related Topics:
Oland Brewery - Dartmouth - 1868 - Law - 1883 - 1880s - George Munro

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In 1920 the University of King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia, English Canada's oldest degree granting institution, burned down. Through a grant from the Carnegie foundation, King's College was able to relocate to Halifax and entered into a partnersip with Dalhousie University. While often seen as a separate but integrated institution it shares Dalhousie's Arts and Sciences Faculty, but offers several interdisciplinary humanities degree programmes, such as Contemporary Studies, History of Science and Technology and Early Modern Studies.

Related Topics:
1920 - University of King's College - Windsor, Nova Scotia - Carnegie foundation

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Dalhousie expanded its presence in south-end Halifax during the 1960s and 1970s when it built the Dalplex athletic facility, the Killam library, the Life Sciences Centre, and a district heating plant, all on what is referred to as the Studley Campus (the main campus). Also at this time, Dalhousie built the Tupper Building for its Faculty of Medicine and expanded existing buildings to house the Faculty of Dentistry and College of Pharmacy, all on the adjacent Carelton Campus, located immediately to the east of the Studley Campus, and co-located with two of Halifax's teaching hospitals (the Victoria General Site of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre and the IWK Health Centre for Women, Children, and Youth).

Related Topics:
1960s - 1970s

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Following a period of government-mandated consolidation of post-secondary institutions during the 1990s, the Technical University of Nova Scotia was merged with Dalhousie University in 1997. It was initially known as Dalhousie University Polytechnic, or DalTech, but since 2000 the DalTech name has been dropped and the engineering, architecture and computer science faculties of TUNS are fully integrated into Dalhousie University. The faculties of engineering and architecture are located on what is known as the Sexton Campus, further east from the Carleton Campus and closer to downtown Halifax. The faculty of computer science moved to its own building on Studley Campus in 1999.

Related Topics:
1990s - Technical University of Nova Scotia - 1997 - 2000 - Computer science - 1999

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