The University of King's College, Canada's oldest chartered university, is a small and extraordinarily lively academic community located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The College is known nationally and internationally for its interdisciplinary programmes in the humanities and journalism.The university, rich with history, maintains many of its old academic traditions: Formal Meal has the students and faculty dressed in academic gowns, student societies founded in the early 19th century are still thriving, a Matriculation reception is held each September in honour of entering students, and graduates are fêted with an Encaenia ceremony each May. The combination of these traditions with the sometimes radical and forward innovations of students and faculty makes for an interesting intellectual environment.

While the College's neighbouring institution, Dalhousie University, has an enrolment of over 16,000 (11,000 undergraduates), King's has a total student population of about 1,100 . The College is committed to retaining the personal atmosphere, individual attention and sense of community possible only in a small university, and the combination of this intimate community with the tremendous resources and faculty at Dalhousie provide unique possibilities in undergraduate education.

Our Foundation Year Programme, founded nearly 40 years ago, put King's on the map. This unique programme that addresses the history of Western thought through interdisciplinary lectures, stimulating tutorial sessions, and a strong emphasis on writing—as, per the old adage, “writing is thinking”—has inspired many of its kind nationally and across the globe.

But we have grown. King’s is now a four-year institution and roughly half of our students continue into an upper-year opportunity to further the discussion they began in FYP, pairing their honours studies at the College with the vast variety available at Dalhousie.

King's provides a unique educational experience, and recently was ranked first in Canada in the National Survey of Student Engagement for its first-year programming. The College is small but active and has well-established national profile, whether it is through the History of Science and Technology program's success as the lead partner in a SSHRC-funded Situating Science project or through the chapel choir under the direction of five times Grammy winning director Paul Halley.

King's offers the best of two worlds—the facilities and resources of a major Canadian university, together with the advantages of a small college in which all members, faculty and students, feel themselves part of a community.

The College is situated in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a vibrant university community, home to nine post-secondary institutions. A city of about 370,000 people, Halifax is the commercial hub of Canada's four Atlantic provinces.

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Last Updated: 25 September 2013
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