University of Calgary

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University of Calgary
Motto: Mo Shùile Togam Suas
(Gaelic: I will lift up my eyes)
Established: 1966
Type: Public
Endowment: $444M[1]
Chancellor: Joanne Cuthbertson
President: Harvey P. Weingarten
Staff: 5,363[2]
Undergraduates: 19,801 full-time, 2,755 part-time[3]
Postgraduates: 4,340 full-time, 1,300 part-time[4]
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Campus: Urban, 2.13 km² or 213 hectares
Sport Teams: Calgary Dinos
Colours: Red, Gold, Black.               
Nickname: Dinos
Mascot: Rex
Affiliations: ACU, AUCC, IAU, G13, CIS, CWUAA, CUSID
Website: University of Calgary

The University of Calgary is a medium to large sized research-intensive public university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University is composed of approximately 24,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students, totaling approximately 29,500 students.

Initially the Calgary Branch of the University of Alberta in the first half of the century, the University of Calgary separated from the University of Alberta, and was officially founded in 1966. The University of Calgary, or "U of C" is currently composed of 16 faculties including a teachers college, law school, and medical school. In 2008 the University of Calgary will be opening a veterinary school bringing the total number of faculties to 17. The campus is located in the north-west quadrant of Calgary.

The University of Calgary is one of the top research-intensive universities in Canada as it holds the seventh most Canada Research Chairs. It is a member of the G13 (Group of Thirteen), Association of Commonwealth Universities, International Association of Universities, and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. The University of Calgary has a sponsored research revenue of $282 million, with total revenues exceeding $800 million. Being located in Calgary, with Canada's highest concentration of Engineers and Geoscientists, both the Faculty of Science, Department of Geosciences and the Faculty of Engineering maintain close ties to the Petroleum and Geoscience industry.

Contents

[edit] Academics

[edit] Overview

The University of Calgary offers over 150 programs in post-secondary education awarding bachelors, masters, and doctorate (Ph.D.) degrees. The university campus has an area of 2.13 km² and hosts, in total, 16 faculties, 55 departments and 36 research institutes and centers (see Canadian university scientific research organizations). The teaching staff at the university is made up of 2,596 people. In addition, the university employs 2,777 management, professional and support staff to serve the needs of the school. This puts the total of the staff to 5,363 people, making it one of Calgary's four largest employers. The university has Alberta's toughest entry requirements, and due to the higher demand in post-secondary education, has an acceptance rate of just around 50%.[citation needed]

With the continuous economic boom in Alberta, the government has promised $4.5 billion to post-secondary institutions in the province.[5] With support coming from many areas, the University of Calgary aims to become one of Canada's top 5 research institutions by the year 2010.[6]

[edit] Faculties

South entrance to MacEwan Student Centre
South entrance to MacEwan Student Centre

The University of Calgary is host to 16 faculties. Several of the university's more recognized faculties are the Schulich School of Engineering, the Haskayne School of Business at Scurfield Hall, Kinesiology, a medical school (MD), a law school (LLB), and in 2008, Western Canada's second veterinary school.

The faculties are:

  • Faculty of Communication and Culture
  • Faculty of Education
  • Faculty of Environmental Design
  • Faculty of Fine Arts
  • Faculty of Graduate Studies
  • Haskayne School of Business
  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Faculty of Kinesiology
  • Faculty of Law
  • Faculty of Medicine
  • Faculty of Nursing
  • Schulich School of Engineering
  • Faculty of Science
  • Faculty of Social Sciences
  • Faculty of Social Work
  • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

[edit] History

University of Calgary is a Non-denominational institution established in 1966, when an existing college, the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta gained autonomy as a university. [7] The Calgary branch of the University of Alberta was founded in 1945. The University of Calgary has developed a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs. [8]

University of Alberta a single, public provincial university created in 1906 was modelled on the American state university, with an emphasis on extension work and applied research. [9] The governance was modelled 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 to provide a link between the 2 bodies and to perform institutional leadership. [10] In the early part of this century, professional education expanded beyond the traditional fields of 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. [11] 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. [12] The University of Calgary launched its program in architecture in 1971. [13] The University of Calgary has developed a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs. [14]

[edit] Rankings and Reputation

The School motto on display
The School motto on display

Webometrics University Rankings[15] ranks the University of Calgary 59th in the USA and Canada category and 71st in the world. It is ranked 5th in Canada.

Research Infosource[16] ranks the top 50 research universities in Canada each year. Calgary is currently ranked 7th.

The Times Higher Education Supplement ranks the school 166th in the world.

The University of Calgary is ranked in the 203-304 area, but in the 100-200 area last year, in the controversial Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It is given a regional rank (encompassing the Americas) of 99-138. Its national rank is in the area of 8-17.

Calgary's Haskayne's School of Business is internationally renowned for its strengths in many areas of undergraduate business, although this is disputed, such as in Maclean Magazine's popular ranking system. In 2006, at the prestigious Inter-Collegiate Business Competition, hosted annually by Queen's University, Calgary continued to outperform and rank at the top in each area of the competition. Twenty-eight Canadian Undegraduate Business schools, along with three from outside Canada competed to solve complex business problems, and complete business cases. Calgary topped the rankings in the areas of Business Policy, Debating, Finance, Labour Arbitration, Marketing and Management Information Systems. It ranked third in Accounting, missing out on the top 3 in just one category. Calgary by far came out as the most successful school at the competition, being one of only four schools to be ranked in the top 3 in more than one category (seven out of eight in Calgary's case). [17]

The University of Calgary ranks 10th place in the Medical-Doctoral category of Maclean's annual university rankings. However, the rankings have been met with criticism.

The University of Calgary and a number of other universities have argued that the methodology Maclean's Magazine uses takes data out of context and is inaccurate for a true reflection of the performance of a school. After numerous requests for change and no action being taken on part of Maclean's, in 2006, 21 prominent Canadian universities along with the University of Calgary, many of those being part of the leading group of research universities known as the G13, decided to opt out of the rankings.[18] Other universities opting out in 2006 include - Dalhousie University, McMaster University, Simon Fraser University, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Lethbridge, University of Manitoba, Universite de Montreal, University of Ottawa, Carleton University, University of Toronto and Queen's University.

[edit] Facilities

The Olympic Oval
The Olympic Oval

The university is home to the MacEwan Hall Ballroom, which is a live concert venue designed to hold approximately 1000 people. The Ballroom has been used for numerous concerts throughout the years, but has also been used for conferences, dinners, and even political debates, most recently the 2006 Alberta PC leadership debate.

Aside from the ballroom, the University also has the Rozsa Centre, a theatre and concert hall located on the south west side of campus, just off of 24th Ave. NW. The Rozsa Centre is privileged to have a Bach organ built by renowned German organ builders Jürgen and Hendrik Ahrend. The Rozsa Centre hosts wind ensembles, choirs, and many other fine arts performances. Many musical competitions are held at the Rozsa Centre every year and can host 384 people in the audience. The University Theatre, which is located directly beside the Rozsa Centre, is also on campus and is designed for drama and dance performances with seating for 505 people.[19]

The campus is also home to the Black Lounge. Throughout most of the 1990s, the room was used as a live music venue by promoters involved in Calgary's all ages punk scene. Its capacity for live music is 350 people.

The Olympic Oval, a multi-purpose ice arena, is also present on the University campus and was the site of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games, holding the claim as the fastest ice in the world. It has a 400m long track oval as well as a short track ice surface and two ice hockey rinks. The campus also has the Jack Simpson Gymnasium, which is in fact three gymnasiums in one with bleachers that cover the outer two courts capable of seating 2,700 people.[20] The University campus also covers the McMahon Stadium, which is home to the Dinos Football Team and the Calgary Stampeders.

[edit] Athletics

The university is represented in CanadaWest, a division of Canadian Interuniversity Sport, and in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference by the Calgary Dinos. The Dinos compete in 12 sports, Basketball, Cross-Country, Field Hockey, Football, Golf, Hockey, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Volleyball, and Wrestling.

The football team plays its home matches at McMahon Stadium, the home of CFL's Calgary Stampeders. It has won the Vanier Cup on four occasions, 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1995.

[edit] Residence

Kananaskis Hall
Kananaskis Hall

The residence buildings on campus can house up to 1800[21] students, situated in eight buildings, all named after mountains in the Canadian Rockies. The two "traditional" buildings on campus are called Rundle Hall and Kananaskis Hall[22] and were built in the early 1960s when the university relocated to its present campus. Five newer buildings named Glacier, Olympus, Norquay, Brewster, and Castle Halls[22] were built just prior to the 1988 Winter Olympics to act as the athletes’ Olympic Village during the games. However, each of these buildings is considerably smaller than the traditional buildings, being only two or three stories tall, and housing between 10 to 30 students on each floor. The newest building, Cascade Hall, is considerably different from the previous five buildings in design, being five stories, making it the third largest residence building, and the size of its floors being able to house many more students than the preceding five buildings. Aside from this difference, the newest six buildings are all designed in the style of apartments whereby there is one hallway on each floor with sets of rooms that can accommodate up to a maximum of four people each. This is in contrast to the two traditional buildings which are designed with three separate hallways on each floor, with each hallway having rooms only capable of accommodating two people each, along with a common area at the centre of the building on each floor.

A new building, called International House is currently under construction to house an additional 200 international students, instructors and conference attendees. This building is part of the University's $1.5 billion dollar capital program, and anticipates welcoming its first residents in September 2008. With the completion of this new building the number of beds on campus will increase to 2000[21].

[edit] Aboriginal

Through the University of Calgary’s Native Ambassador Program Initiative, Aboriginal students act as role models to younger students still in their home communities. To assist with the transition to a fulfilling career, the Universities of Calgary is leading an Aboriginal Lynx Career and Employment Project with the involvement of other Western universities including University of Saskatchewan and University of Winnipeg. [23]

[edit] Media

  • Campus Newspaper - "OnCampus"
  • Student Newspaper - "The Gauntlet"
  • Undergraduate Zine - "U of C Zine"
  • Campus Radio Station - CJSW
  • Campus Television - "NUTV"

[edit] Notable Alumni

1992
1991
1981
  • Harold (Hal) Kvisle, MBA. President & CEO of TransCanada Corporation.[27]
1977
1976

[edit] See also

[edit] Histories of the University

  • Geertje Boschma 'Faculty of Nursing on the Move: "Thirty Years of Nursing Education, Research and Science at the University of Calgary, 1969-2000" (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, September 30, 2005)

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Endowment returns | University of Calgary
  2. ^ Faculty/Staff Counts
  3. ^ Student Enrollment Counts
  4. ^ Student Enrollment Counts
  5. ^ Bill 1 to secure Albertan's access to the future
  6. ^ About the U of C
  7. ^ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
  8. ^ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
  9. ^ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
  10. ^ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
  11. ^ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
  12. ^ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
  13. ^ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
  14. ^ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
  15. ^ Webometrics University Rankings
  16. ^ Research Infosource
  17. ^ Inter-Collegiate Business Competition 2006 Rankings
  18. ^ U of C Gauntlet - Opting out of Maclean's ranking
  19. ^ About the University
  20. ^ Faculty of Kinesiology
  21. ^ a b International House bed numbers
  22. ^ a b Addresses for the Residence Buildings, showing the names
  23. ^ http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/cms-filesystem-action?file=pdfs/conferences/2007/aboriginal-rt-spring-report.pdf.
  24. ^ Forbes.com article
  25. ^ Space Facts page
  26. ^ Prime Minister of Canada: Prime Minister Stephen Harper
  27. ^ TransCanada Profile.
  28. ^ U of C On Campus article
  29. ^ Robert Thirsk bio - Government of Canada website

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Coordinates: 51°04′39″N 114°07′59″W / 51.0775, -114.13306 (University of Calgary)