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The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 (after operating as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta since 1945) the University of Calgary is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.
More than 25,000 undergraduate and 6,000 graduate students are currently enrolled. The University of Calgary has graduated over 155,000 alumni in 152 countries, including former Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, and Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk.
The University of Calgary is one of Canada’s top research universities (based on the number of Canada Research Chairs) and is a member of the U15 (the 15 most research-intensive universities in Canada).
The University of Calgary is the birthplace of a number of important inventions, including the neurochip. The university's sponsored research revenue of $352 million, with total revenues exceeding $1.1 billion, is one of the highest in the country. Being in Calgary, with Canada's highest concentration of engineers and geoscientists, the Faculty of Science, Department of Geosciences and the Schulich School of Engineering maintain ties to the petroleum and geoscience industry.
The main campus is located in the north-west quadrant of Calgary, near the Bow River, and covers more than 200 hectares or 494.2 acres.
Early History
The University of Calgary was established in 1966, but its roots date back more than half a century earlier to the establishment of the Normal School in Calgary in 1905. The Alberta Normal School was established in Calgary to train primary and secondary school teachers in the new province. The people of Calgary, however, attempted to establish another publicly funded university in Calgary itself. "An Act to Incorporate the University of Calgary" was presented for first reading as a Bill in the Alberta Legislature in an attempt to establish a private university in Calgary. The Legislature allowed the institution to incorporate as 'Calgary College', rather than as the 'University of Calgary'. It withheld from the College the powers to confer degrees and to hold the examinations required for admission to the professions.
Calgary strove to have an institute of higher learning with degree conferring powers which led to the University of Alberta opening a branch in Calgary in 1945. The University of Alberta Calgary Branch eventually gained full autonomy in 1966 and became the University of Calgary. Admission Rate 57%.
The university was modeled on the American state university (similar to the University of Alberta), with an emphasis on extension work and applied research. The governance was modeled on the provincial University of Toronto Act of 1906 which established a bicameral system of university government consisting of a senate (faculty), responsible for academic policy, and a board of governors (citizens) exercising exclusive control over financial policy and having formal authority in all other matters. The president, appointed by the board, was a link between the bodies to perform institutional leadership.
In the early 20th century, professional education expanded beyond theology, law and medicine. Graduate training based on the German-inspired American model of specialized course work and the completion of a research thesis was introduced. The policy of university education initiated in the 1960s responded to population pressure and the belief that higher education was a key to social justice and economic productivity for individuals and for society. The University of Calgary launched its program in architecture in 1971. The University of Calgary tartan is associated with the university and with its pipe band.
The university's first president, Herbert Stoker Armstrong, held a strong belief that "although the university is accountable to the society that supports it, the university must insist on playing a leadership role in intellectual matters if it is to be worthy of the name."
Today
The University of Calgary's Child Development Centre is Alberta's first building designed and constructed to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, the North American benchmark for environmentally high-performance buildings. The facility, which houses the university's second child-care facility and a full continuum of researchers, clinicians and frontline workers, is dedicated to child health. The building officially opened in October, 2007.
In 2011, an addition of rare neurology books dated over 500 years have been added to the MacKimmie library collection. The collection includes an original copy of the 1953 Nature paper where Nobel winners James D. Watson and Francis Crick first described the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. It also includes the rare first neurological text written in the 1600s by Thomas Willis, the man who coined the term neurology and is known as the ‘father of neurology’. The collection is valued at approximately $600,000.
Canada’s fifth veterinary school, the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, was opened in mid-2008. Research and graduate education programs will be focused on areas of strength and importance in Alberta and will fall in line with the college’s areas of emphasis: production animal health, equine health, ecosystem and public health and investigative medicine. The first class of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students started classes in the fall of 2008.