Region : Nova Scotia
City : Halifax
Web site : www.ukings.ca
The University of King's College, established in 1789, is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is the oldest chartered university in Canada, and the first English-speaking university in the Commonwealth outside the United Kingdom. The university is renowned for its Foundation Year Programme, a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of Western culture through Great Books, designed for first-year undergraduates. It has also garnered acclaim through its upper-year interdisciplinary programs - particularly its Contemporary Studies program, Early Modern Studies program, and its History of Science and Technology program. In addition, the university boasts a Journalism school which attracts students across the world for its intensive Master of Journalism programs and its Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction, the first of its kind in Canada. Its undergraduate Journalism programs are known for leading content in digital formats.
Although the university was first established as the King's Collegiate School in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1789, a fire destroyed the original university in 1920, and the institution relocated to Halifax. The relocation was made possible with the help of Dalhousie University, which has since maintained a joint faculty of Arts and Social Sciences with King's. This partnership provides students at King's with full access to Dalhousie’s facilities and services. Despite this partnership, King's remains independent under its own charter.
The university is located on the northwest corner of the Dalhousie University campus.
King's students generally take FYP in their first year and choose a specific degree program to pursue in their final three years. Most students at King's take at least some classes through programs at Dalhousie University. With the exception of the Journalism program, King's students graduate with joint degrees from King's and Dalhousie. King's students are eligible to complete these degrees in any subject from Dalhousie's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences or Faculty of Science.
The Foundation Year Programme is a core-text programme for first-year students; it surveys the history of western thought and culture from ancient times to the present day. It has been offered since 1972. The course has traditionally been divided into six sections.
The Foundation Year Programme (FYP) has been described by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada as having "a national reputation for excellence as an alternative first-year of undergraduate studies", and is regarded as a prototype for similar programs elsewhere; the principal Canadian news magazine Maclean's, which is well known for its university ranking guide, expresses the view in a discussion of small, specialized undergraduate programs in Canada that "it's unlikely that any of the other programs would exist if not for the Foundation Year at King's". In both 2008 and 2009, the FYP program had been ranked first in Canada by the National Survey of Student Engagement.
Sources : Wikipedia, www.ukings.ca
