Mount Allison has built a reputation through the success of its students, faculty, staff, and graduates. Every year students like you come to campus from across Canada and around the world to be part of a living and learning community that fuels passions and ignites new interests.

The University offers a broad interdisciplinary knowledge base with more than 40 programs. With smaller class sizes and access to world-class faculty, students gain hands-on learning opportunities that combine practical experience, the application of learning to real-world situations, and skills development.

Along with our own award-winning faculty and resources, Mount Allison is also part of the Maple League with Acadia, Bishop's, and St. Francis Xavier Universities. The Maple League is a co-operative initiative to promote and extend common objectives of providing students with a high quality undergraduate university education in a residential setting.

OUR MISSION

Mount Allison University is committed to the creation and dissemination of knowledge in a community of higher learning, centred on undergraduate students, in an intimate and harmonious environment. Our teaching, research, and creative enterprise are combined with extracurricular activities in a liberal education tradition that emphasizes development of the whole person. This integrated approach involves collaborative efforts among all members of the University community and leads to superior scholarship, cultural understanding and appreciation, personal and social maturation, leadership development, and informed citizenship.

WELL-ROUNDED STUDENTS IN A TIGHTLY-KNIT COMMUNITY

Mount Allison is an undergraduate liberal arts and science university with an enrolment of approximately 2,300 full-time students. It has preserved the character of a compact, scholarly community to foster excellence in teaching, mentoring, and student-centred research.

Students enjoy a close-knit community along with diverse extracurricular experiences. Along with a dynamic athletics program with varsity, club, and intramural offerings, Mount Allison has approximately 150 student-run clubs and societies.

Mount Allison has one of the strongest records among Canadian universities of Rhodes Scholars (53 in 2016) and enjoys a high number of external awards for both scholarships and research among its students and faculty members.

Notable alumni include artists Mary Pratt and Christopher Pratt and the late Alex Colville; national broadcaster Ian Hanomansing; opera singer Sally Dibblee; Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Marc Pelletier; performance consultant and psychologist Dr. Kimberley Amirault-Ryan; award-winning singer/songwriter David Myles; and former lieutenant-governors of New Brunswick Margaret McCain, Marilyn Trenholme Counsell, and Herménégilde Chiasson, as well as Nova Scotia Lieutant-Governor John James Grant.

THE FACULTY

The University's faculty is talented and dedicated, exemplifying a strong blend of teaching and research. Mount Allison faculty ranked first in the country for faculty awards (Maclean's 2017 University Rankings) and seven professors have been named National 3M Teaching Fellows, Canada's highest national teaching distinction, while at Mount Allison.

Along with teaching, many faculty members also pursue research projects directly with their students, giving Mount Allison students unprecedented research experience at the undergraduate level.

AN EDUCATION SUITED TO THE 21ST CENTURY

Mount Allison offers Bachelor's degrees in Arts, Science, Commerce, Fine Arts, and Music, as well as Master's degrees in Science and Certificates in Bilingualism.

The Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees are achieved through completion of one of a specialized honours program; a major plus a minor; a double major; or a general degree of three minors. In addition, each Arts and Science student takes at least six credits from each of four distribution areas of Arts, Humanities, Natural Science, and Social World.

Mount Allison is a liberal arts institution. A liberal arts and science education allows you to gain a broad knowledge base and combine your interests in interesting and surprising ways. It teaches you how to learn, think, understand, adapt, problem solve, communicate, work with people, and tackle today's and tomorrow's challenges. It is a solid foundation for any career you may choose to pursue.

A degree from Mount Allison, or a few carefully selected courses or electives as part of a Mount Allison degree, may permit admission to a professional program. Some of these programs include medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, law, education, theology, social work, audiology and speech therapy, occupational physiotherapy, optometry, architecture, and nutritional programs as well as many others. These professional programs may be accessed upon successful completion of courses or a degree from Mount Allison and in combination with other requirements as appropriate (e.g. LSAT, MCAT, GRE, etc.).

Mount Allison also is focused on providing experiential or hands-on learning opportunities - the chance to apply what you have learned in the classroom to real-world situations.

A REPUTATION FOR LEADERSHIP

For more than a century, Mount Allison has been recognized as a leader. Mount Allison was the first university in the British Empire to confer a Bachelor's degree on a woman - Grace Annie Lockhart received a Bachelor of Science in 1875. It was also the first university in Canada to grant a Bachelor of Arts to a woman - Harriet Starr Stewart in 1882.

Mount Allison boasts the oldest university art gallery in Canada; was the first Canadian university to offer a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Canadian Studies program; and it is a pioneer in the establishment of services for students with learning disabilities through the award-winning Meighen Centre. It has consistently been ranked among the top undergraduate universities in Canada by Maclean's magazine since the rankings' inception in 1991. A high-calibre faculty, outstanding students, and financial stability are among the reasons why.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

Founder Charles Frederick Allison's grandfather emigrated from Ireland in the late 1700s, as a result of a dinner with the local tax collector. Wanting to impress him, the family set the table with their one valuable possession, a set of silver spoons. After entertaining their guest, the Allison's were informed that if they could afford silver spoons, they could afford to pay more taxes. They left Ireland shortly thereafter. The spoons are on display in the R.P. Bell Library at Mount Allison.

In June 1839, Charles Frederick Allison, Sackville merchant, proposed to the Wesleyan Methodists that a school of elementary and higher learning be built. His offer to purchase a site in Sackville, to erect a suitable building for an academy, and to contribute operating funds of 100 pounds a year for 10 years was accepted. The formal opening of the Mount Allison Academy for boys took place in 1843. In 1854, a branch institution for girls opened. In July 1862, the degree-granting Mount Allison College was organized. The first two students graduated in May 1863. For nearly a century, Mount Allison functioned as three distinct, mutually enriching parts: the College proper, the Boys' Academy and the Ladies' College.

Mount Allison has a long and proud tradition, and part of that tradition has been the ability to evolve and adapt to new and changing demands. It is very much a university of the 21st century, while remaining the direct and recognizable descendant of the first Academy of 1843.

ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CAMPUSES IN CANADA

The Mount Allison calendar for 1851 declared Sackville a "pleasant and healthy" community, "easy of access from all parts of the Lower Provinces." The Mount Allison buildings are "elegant, spacious and comfortable, and delightfully situated upon an elevation of ground." The facilities offered were, "all that could be desired, either for the enterprising Teacher to aid him in his work of instruction, or to the ambitious Student to facilitate his honourable progress." Writing styles have changed since then, but Mount Allison still continues to take pride in its campus.

Recent years have witnessed ongoing improvements to the academic facilities, including the opening of the Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts and upgrades to a number of classrooms. Unlike some other institutions, this University has never moved from its original campus; it has expanded in area, but is still centred on that rise of ground named "Mount Allison" after the founder. The traditional use of red and grey local sandstone, plus continual efforts to beautify and upgrade facilities, offers a setting that honours the past, yet embraces the future.

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Mount Allison University is a member of Universities Canada.