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University of King's College

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The University of King's College is a post-secondary institution in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. King's is a small independent university offering only undergraduate programmes. It maintains an affiliation with Dalhousie University for some programmes and its campus is located at the northwest corner of Dalhousie's Studley Campus. Enrollment as of 2005 was approximately 1,100. Its current Chancellor is Senator Michael Meighen. Senator Meighen has just accepted a second term, which will see him remaining Chancellor of the University until 2011.

King's main programme is the Foundation Year Programme (FYP) for first year students, which is billed as a "crash course" in famous works and western philosophy. Other offered programmes include Journalism, Philosophy, Classics, Contemporary Studies and several other interdisciplinary offerings mostly available through courses given at Dalhousie University. Generally, all King's students take FYP in their first year and choose a major to pursue in their final three years.

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Early Years at Windsor

The University of King's College, Canada's oldest chartered university, was founded in 1789 in Windsor, Nova Scotia by a group of United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, led by Bishop Charles Inglis; King's Collegiate School pre-dated the establishment of a university by a year. (There had been a King's College in New York, which after the Revolution became Columbia University; whether there is a historical connection between the two is a matter of debate). The Windsor campus was granted a Royal Charter by King George III in 1802. It is now the oldest English-speaking university in the British Commonwealth outside Britain and continues to celebrate King George III's birthday with a holiday every year.

It is asserted by locals that students at King's invented hockey circa 1800; a similar game developed, perhaps independently, in Kingston, Ontario a few years later, leading to occasional misattributions of the sport's history.

During the 19th century all students were required to take oaths confirming their devotion to the Anglican Church.

On February 3rd, 1920, fire was set on the campus (though the cause of the blaze is still unknown), and because the fire hydrants were frozen the blaze could not be put out and the buildings burned to the ground.

Move to Halifax

In 1922 the Carnegie Foundation offered King's money to rebuild, on the condition that they surrender their independence and enter into an affiliation with Dalhousie University in Halifax with the projected plan that one day all of Nova Scotia's universities would merge into a single body, much like the University of Toronto. King's joined with Dalhousie but they subsequently chose not to pursue the broader plan. King's built a new campus on the northwest corner of Dalhousie University's land. The contract with Dalhousie stipulated that degrees in Arts and Sciences would be granted jointly by Dalhousie and King's; King's would continue to grant its own degrees in Divinity.

When World War II broke out King's was requisitioned by the military for the training of naval officers. King's functioned as a "stone frigate", providing a facility for navigation training before officers were sent to their ships. The academic life of the College carried on during those years elsewhere in Halifax, aided by Dalhousie University and the United Church's Pine Hill Divinity Hall. In reflection of this naval past, the student bar on campus is still known as the HMCS King's Wardroom, or simply "the Wardroom."

During the war the Germans would occasionally broadcast names of Allied ships they had sunk. Because the ships had to keep radio silence these reports could not be verified, and it was suspected that many were false. Allies circulated lists of non-active ships in the hopes of feeding the Germans disinformation; when the German's broadcast that they had sunk HMCS King's their ruse was made plain.

After the war the campus was returned to the university, but the Faculty of Divinity remained at Pine Hill where, in 1971, it was formally amalgamated into the Atlantic School of Theology, an ecumenical venture with the United Church of Canada and the (Roman) Catholic Church.

King's reformed

In the early nineteen-seventies, King's faculty and alumni created the Foundation Year Programme (FYP), a first-year "Great Books" course that would count for four of a student's first five credits. The programme consisted of six sections from The Ancient World to The Contemporary World, in which students would read the work of major philosophers, poets, historians, and scientists, receive lectures from a range of experts in all these areas, write critical papers and engage in small-group discussion and tutorials. The programme initially had 30 students; it now draws about 300 a year.

In 1977 King's introduced two bachelor of journalism programmes: a four-year Honours degree and a one-year compressed degree for students who already had a Bachelor's degree.

In 1993 King's created the "Contemporary Studies Programme," an interdisciplinary humanities programme that could constitute one of a student's majors in a Combined Honours degree.

In 2000 and 2001 King's launched an Early Modern Studies Programme and a History of Science and Technology Programme modelled after Contemporary Studies but with different subject matters.

Enrollment
1984 517
1994 691
2004 1109
2005 1151

Today there are just over 1,100 students at King's, which, although a small number for a university, represents significant growth over the few hundred students more typical in the 1960s and 70s. Its first year class is made up almost exclusively of Foundation Year Programme students (though a number of non-FYP first year students typically live in residence). In 2001, the FYP class was 274 students, with slightly over a hundred of these students coming from Ontario. King's has been accused of catering more and more to wealthier students from Ontario and Quebec, ignoring its own province. However, many students still come from Nova Scotia, the number of Nova Scotians rising 23% between 1994 and 2004.

The largest ever FYP class was in 2004, with 309 students. However, the administration want to cap future classes at 300. With improved retention rates the school population should then stabilize at around 1200 in future years. The number of students leaving after first year has dropped significantly since the introduction of the upper year inter-disciplinary programmes.

One problem for King's, as for all Nova Scotia universities, has been the relative decline in government funding. In 1990, 78% of the university's operating costs were government funded; in 2004 only 31% were. Part of the reason has been a large expansion of the university, with only modest increases in government funding. Another reason is that the government of Nova Scotia funds the universities on a "per Nova Scotia student" basis, resulting in under funding to universities with large numbers of out of province students. Large increases in tuition fees have been used to cover the university's costs. As of 2005 over 50% of costs were covered by student fees.

In 2005, the Nova Scotia government reached a Memorandum of Understanding with the universities of the province. It limited tuition increases to 3.9% for 3 years. In exchange the government guaranteed a 5.8% increase in fuding the first year, and slightly smaller increases for the remaining 2 years. Since King's relies more heavily on tuition than government funding, the university's financial situation will suffer as a result.

A library building was built in 1990, replacing a smaller one in the A and A. The library won architectural awards. The same architect designed the New Academic Building (as it is fondly called) in 2000, but it did not win any awards. Additional residence rooms were added in the basement of the female residence (Alexandra Hall) in 2001 to accommodate some of the new students. Currently residence can accommodate 274 students.

A new president, Dr. William Barker, was installed in October 2003, replacing Dr. Colin Starnes, to lead the university for at least the following five years. Dr. Barker and the rest of the university administration believe that King's has grown as much as it can and should. They describe the coming years as 'a time of consolidation'.

The university's growth has changed some King's traditions. Formal meals, with Latin grace and academic gowns, formerly held at regular intervals, were suspended from 2001 until 2003. Only with the arrival of Dr. Barker were they reinstated. Traditional residence parties, known as 'bay parties' were cancelled for the first time in 2003, theoretically because of the increased number of minors enrolled due to the elimination of grade 13 in Ontario. The university administration felt it would be inappropriate to expose so many young people to the excesses of alcohol that usually mark those events. However, Bay Parties saw a revival during the 2005-06 school year, with both Radical Bay and Cochran Bay hosting several highly successful events. Another consequence of increased enrollment has been a more unbalanced composition of the residences. Traditionally students from all years of study have lived in residence, but increasingly, very few upper year students continue to live on campus making way for extra first years. Plans for 2006 include opening the traditional women's residence, Alexandra Hall, to males, with the building alternating men and women on each floor.

University of King's College in Autumn

Notable staff

Notable alumni

External links


{| class="toccolours" style="margin: auto; border=0; cellpadding=0;" |

! style="background:#ccccff" align="center" width="100%" | Nova Scotia universities ||

|- | align="center" style=font-size: 70%;" colspan="4" | Public universities |- | align="center" style="font-size: 90%;" colspan="4" | Acadia | AST | Dalhousie | Mount Saint Vincent | NSCAD | Saint Francis Xavier | Saint Mary's | Cape Breton | Saint Anne |-

 

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