Saint Dunstan's University
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St. Dunstan's University (SDU) is a former university which was located on the northern outskirts of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. SDU merged with Prince of Wales College (PWC) in 1969 to form the University of Prince Edward Island.
SDU was founded by the Roman Catholic diocese of Charlottetown in 1854 as a seminary but by the mid-20th century had expanded into a small Liberal Arts university. A post-Second World War enrollment boom mandated an expansion which saw new residences and teaching buildings constructed on the campus located along Charlottetown's Elm Avenue (the Malpeque Road). SDU received a provincial degree-granting charter in 1917 but didn't actually award its first bachelor degrees until the spring 1941 convocation. Prior to this, SDU had affiliated with Université Laval and awarded joint degrees from the 1890s onward. Following the decision to start granting its own degrees, SDU severed the relationship with Laval by 1956.
Similarly to PWC, SDU also operated a high school, offering senior matriculation to those students wishing to continue into academic or professional studies. SDU remained an all-male institution until it was merged with PWC in 1969. Catholic women from the province (and the rest of the Maritimes) who were seeking a catholic education were forced to travel to Halifax's Mount Saint Vincent University. Many catholic women from PEI attended PWC for their senior matriculation before continuing their education at the university level.
By the 1960s, the provincial government in Prince Edward Island began a critical study of its post-secondary education institutions (PWC and SDU), concluding that a merger to form a provincial university was the desired funding and service model for future Island students. The merger was not without controversy as emotions ran their course on the part of supporters of both institutions, however in May, 1969 the last classes graduated from PWC and SDU and the institutions were merged into the University of Prince Edward Island which opened for the first time in September 1969 on the now-former SDU campus. At the same time as UPEI was formed, Elm Avenue was renamed by the City of Charlottetown to University Avenue, which it is still referred by. The PWC campus on Grafton Street was taken over by the provincial government and formed the basis for the new provincial community college, Holland College.
