University of Calgary

University of Calgary

File:UofC Coat.png
Motto	Mo Shùile Togam Suas (Gaelic: I will lift up my eyes)
Type	Public
Established	1966
Endowment	$348M
Chancellor	Joanne Cuthbertson]
President	Harvey P. Weingarten
Undergraduates	19 801 full-time, 2,755 part-time
Postgraduates	4,340 full-time, 1,300 part-time
Location	Calgary , Alberta , Canada
Campus	Urban, 2.13 km² or 213 hectares
Sport Teams	Calgary Dinos
Colours	Red, Gold, Black.
Nickname	Dinos
Affiliations	ACU, AUCC, IAU, G13, CIS, CWUAA, CUSID, CBIE
Mascot	Rex
Website	University of Calgary

The University of Calgary is a research-intensive public university in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University is composed of 24,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students.

Initially the Calgary Branch of the University of Alberta in the first half of the 20th century, the University of Calgary separated from the University of Alberta, and was founded in 1966. The University of Calgary, or "U of C", is composed of 16 faculties including a teachers' college, law school, and medical school. In 2008 the University of Calgary opened a veterinary school bringing the number of faculties to 17. The campus is in the north-west quadrant of Calgary.

The University of Calgary is one of the top research-intensive universities in Canada with 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 has a sponsored research revenue of $282 million, with total revenues exceeding $800 million. Being in Calgary, with Canada's highest concentration of engineers and geoscientists, both the Faculty of Science, Department of Geosciences and the Schulich School of Engineering maintain ties to the petroleum and geoscience industry.

Academics

Overview

Aerial view of the University grounds

The university offers 150 programs in post-secondary education awarding bachelors, masters, and doctorate (Ph.D.) degrees. The campus has an area of 2.13 km² and hosts 16 faculties, 55 departments and 36 research institutes and centers (see Canadian university scientific research organizations). The teaching staff is 2,596. The university employs 2,777 management, professional and support staff. This puts the staff at 5,363, 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, an acceptance rate of around 50%.

With the economic boom in Alberta, the government has promised $4.5 billion to post-secondary institutions in the province.

The university maintains a research partnership with the City of Calgary, the Urban Alliance. This uses problems facing cities inter-disciplinary university innovation. Its purpose is to deliver quality of life and qualified people to the city, province and county. Early innovations are helping reduce GHG, integrate immigrant newcomers, reshape urban form, reduce youth crime, adapt to climate change, create alternate energy, support seniors, increase disaster resilience, improve mobility, water quality and other aspects.

Faculties

South entrance to MacEwan Student Centre

Several of the university's 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

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. 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.

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. 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 a link between the bodies to perform institutional leadership. In the early 20th century, professional education expanded beyond 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. 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. The University of Calgary launched its program in architecture in 1971. The University of Calgary has developed a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs.

Rankings and Reputation

The School motto on display

Webometrics University Rankings, which ranks universities on their presence on the Internet, ranks the University of Calgary 45th in the USA and Canada category and 50th in the world. It is ranked 3rd in Canada.

Research Infosource 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 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 renowned for strengths in undergraduate business, although this is disputed, such as in Maclean Magazine's popular ranking system. In 2006, at the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition, hosted annually by Queen's University, Calgary continued to rank at the top in each area. Twenty-eight Canadian Undegraduate Business schools, with three from outside Canada, competed to solve business problems, and complete business cases. Calgary topped the rankings in business policy, debating, finance, labour arbitration, marketing and management information systems. It ranked third in accounting. Calgary came out the most successful school, one of four in the top 3 in more than one category (seven out of eight in Calgary's case).

The University of Calgary ranks 7th in the medical-doctoral category of Maclean's annual university rankings. However, the rankings have been met with criticism.

The University of Calgary and other universities have argued that Maclean's Magazine takes data out of context and is an inaccurate reflection of performance . In 2006, 21 Canadian universities along with the University of Calgary, many being part of the leading group of research universities known as the G13, opted out of the rankings. Other universities opting out in 2006 included Dalhousie, McMaster, Simon Fraser, Alberta, British Columbia, Lethbridge, Manitoba, Montreal, Ottawa, Carleton, Toronto and Queen's .

Facilities

The Olympic Oval

The university is home to MacEwan Hall Ballroom, a concert venue holding 1000. The Ballroom has been also been used for conferences, dinners, and political debates, recently the 2006 Alberta PC leadership debate.

The university also has the Rozsa Centre, a theatre and concert hall on the south west side of campus, off 24th Ave NW. The Rozsa Centre has a Bach organ built by Jürgen and Hendrik Ahrend. The Rozsa Centre hosts wind ensembles, choirs, and other fine arts. Musical competitions are held at every year and can host 384 people. The University Theatre, beside the Rozsa Centre, is designed for drama and dance with seating for 505 .

The campus is home to the Black Lounge. Throughout most of the 1990s, the room was a music venue. Its capacity for live music is 350

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

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

Residence

Kananaskis Hall

The residence buildings on campus house 1800 students, situated in eight buildings named after mountains in the Canadian Rockies. The two traditional buildings are Rundle Hall and Kananaskis Hall 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 were built prior to the 1988 Winter Olympics as the athletes’ Olympic Village. However, each is smaller than the traditional buildings, two or three stories tall and housing 10 to 30 students on each floor. The newest, Cascade Hall, is five stories, the third largest residence building, its floors being able to house more students. The newest six buildings are all designed in the style of apartments with a hallway on each floor with sets of rooms that can accommodate four people each. This is in contrast to the traditional buildings which have hallways on each floor, each having rooms accommodating two, along with a common area at the centre of the building on each floor.

A new building, International House houses 200 international students, instructors and conference attendees. This is part of the university's $1.5 billion capital program. With the completion of this new building the number of beds on campus will increase to 2000.

Aboriginal

Through the university’s Native Ambassador Program Initiative, aboriginal students act as role models to younger students in their home communities. To assist with transition to a career, the university is leading an Aboriginal Lynx Career and Employment Project with other universities including University of Saskatchewan and University of Winnipeg.

Qatar Campus

University of Calgary has established a campus in Qatar which has mainly Nursing education as a Bachelor of Nursing and a Graduate Post Diploma in Nursing.

Media

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

Notable Alumni

1992

• Theo de Raadt, B.Sc. Founder and leader of the OpenBSD and OpenSSH projects, degree in Computer Science.

1991

• Douglas R. Hamilton, Ph.D. NASA flight surgeon and biomedical engineer.
• The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, MA,B.A. Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party, holds degrees in Economics.

1981

• Harold (Hal) Kvisle, MBA. President & CEO of TransCanada Corporation.

1977

• James Gosling, B.Sc. Inventor of the Java programming language, holds a Computer Science degree.

1976

• Robert Thirsk, B.Sc. Canadian Space Agency astronaut and NASA capsule communicator for the International Space Station program. Holds a Mechanical Engineering degree.

1974

• D. George Wyse, MD, FRCPC, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Calgary, is a member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta. His research changed the way cardiac arrhythmia is treated globally.

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)

See also

• List of University of Calgary people
• List of Alberta universities
• List of universities with industrial engineering faculty
• University of Calgary Students' Union
• UC Solar Team
• Faculty of Medicine of the University of Calgary
• University of Calgary Faculty of Law
• Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary

External links

• Official site of the University of Calgary