University Of King's College

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 forward-looking 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 1,200. The college is committed to retaining the personal atmosphere, individual attention, and sense of community that only a small university can offer. Our intimate community, combined with the resources and faculty at Dalhousie, provide students with unique opportunities in undergraduate education. Our Foundation Year Programme, founded in 1972, is a pioneering programme that addresses the history of Western thought through interdisciplinary lectures, small tutorial sessions, and a strong emphasis on writing that has inspired similar programmes, both nationally and across the globe. King’s is now a four-year institution and roughly half of our students continue into an upper-year opportunity, pairing their honours studies at the College with the range of courses available at Dalhousie. King's was ranked first in Canada in the 2008 and 2009 National Survey of Student Engagement for its first-year programming. It has a well-established national profile for many reasons, whether through the History of Science and Technology programme's success as the lead partner in the SSHRC-funded Situating Science project or through the chapel choir under the direction of five-time Grammy-winning music director Paul Halley. 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.