King’s and Dalhousie
After a disastrous fire in the 1920s, King’s College moved from Windsor, NS to Halifax and into association with Dalhousie University, with whom we have shared a campus for over 90 years. Together, the two institutions have developed a subtle, stable and immensely productive relationship which attracts some of the best undergraduate students in Canada.
Dalhousie University is the region’s foremost research-intensive university, with over 19,000 students in over 180 degree programs. The resources of the first-rate College of Arts & Science at Dalhousie, combined with the unified interdisciplinary work pioneered at King’s, offers students a relevance and richness found nowhere else in Canada. These two universities with differing national reputations provide unsurpassed excellence and opportunity for students.
With only minor exceptions, students who enrol at King’s and students who enrol at Dalhousie for a BA, BMus or BSc degree are taught in the same courses by the same professors; in the same classrooms at the same times; and, are awarded the same degree — the Dalhousie BA or BMus or BSc. Joint King’s/Dalhousie degrees are conferred for BA & BSc degrees where one of King’s Combined Honours programs is completed.
The exceptions are that students who wish to take the Foundation Year Program (FYP), the Bachelor of Journalism (Honours), the Bachelor of Journalism (BJ), the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction (MFA) and the Master of Journalism (MJ) must be enrolled at King’s while they are taking the program.
Most King’s BA or BMus or BSc students take FYP (either the 24 credit hour / four-credit or the 18 credit hour / three-credit version) in their first year, but there are also many who do not. These are students who want to belong to the King’s Community while taking a regular slate of first-year courses in the Dalhousie College of Arts & Science.
In all years of undergraduate study, any course offered in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Science is available to King’s students. The institutions share a single student information system. King’s (or Dalhousie) students may switch their enrolment to the other institution at any time up to and including the last day to register for the fall term. Students enrolled at King’s have complete access to the student services and the library system of Dalhousie and to Dalplex, Dalhousie’s full-service athletic complex.
There are a few differences: King’s scholarship, bursary and student employment programs are for King’s students only (as those at Dalhousie are for Dalhousie students only); King’s varsity athletic programs are for King’s students only (as Dalhousie’s are for Dalhousie students only); and King’s intramural athletic programs, residences and student clubs and societies tend to be for King’s students only. Although Dalhousie students can’t take the Foundation Year Program, they can take any of the courses offered at King’s in the Contemporary Studies, Early Modern Studies and History of Science and Technology programs, as well as many of the courses in the School of Journalism.
There are excellent reasons for being a student at King’s or at Dalhousie. There are two communities for you to choose from: the one small and intense, the other large and diverse. Both share a common academic excellence. You are free to move back and forth between these two according to your changing needs and goals. The joint aim of both universities is to offer students the best of both university experiences and easy access to either.