Mount Saint Vincent University

Mount Saint Vincent University, often referred to as the Mount, is a public, primarily undergraduate, university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and was established in 1873. Mount Saint Vincent offers undergraduate Arts, Science, Education, and Professional Studies undergraduate programs. The Mount has 13 graduate degrees in Applied Human Nutrition, School Psychology, Child and Youth Study, Education, Family Studies and Gerontology, Public Relations and Women's Studies. The Mount offers a doctorate program and a Ph.D. in Educational Studies through a joint initiative with St. Francis Xavier University and Acadia University. The Mount offers over 190 courses, ten undergraduate degree programs, and four online graduate degree programs.

The university attracts many students partly because of its small class sizes, specialty programs, and location. The Mount has Canada Research Chairs in Gender Identity and Social Practices as well as Food Security and Policy Change. This institution is unique nationwide as it has a Chair in learning disabilities, a Master of Public Relations program, a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies, and numerous other programs, faculty, and research initiatives.

Established by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul (Halifax) as a women's college in 1873, the Mount was one of the few institutions of higher education for women in Canada at a time when women could not vote. The original purpose of the academy was to train novices and young sisters as teachers. Still, the Sisters also recognized a need to educate other young women. Over the ensuing years, the order developed a convent, schools, an orphanage, and health care facilities throughout the Halifax area and across North America.

The Sisters of Charity Halifax, also staffed the Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia, which was open from 1930 to 1967, and the Cranbrook Residential School in British Columbia, which was open from 1890 to 1970. In October 2021, then-MSVU President Dr. Ramona Lumpkin apologized on behalf of the university to the survivors, their families and communities, as well as all Indigenous peoples, for the university’s role in the tragedy of residential schools in Canada.

Architect Charles Welsford West designed the Romanesque chapel and annex (1903–05) at Mount St. Vincent Academy (now the University). He was the Architect of Nova Scotia Public Works & Mines 1932–1950.

By 1912, the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul (Halifax) recognized the need to offer more significant opportunities through university education. They adopted a plan to establish a college for young women. Two years later, in 1914, the Sisters partnered with Dalhousie University, enabling Mount Saint Vincent to offer the first two years of a bachelor's degree program to be credited toward^{[clarification needed]} a Dalhousie degree.

In 1925, the Nova Scotia Legislature awarded the Mount the right to grant degrees, making it the only independent women's college in the British Commonwealth. By 1951, degrees were offered in Arts, Secretarial Science, Music, Home Economics, Library Science, Nursing and Education.

A new charter was granted in 1966, and the College became Mount Saint Vincent University, establishing a board of governors and senate. This was also a period of tremendous growth– with enrolment increases, new construction, and new agreements. In 1967, the Mount began admitting male students. The university continued to evolve with the expansion of programs during the 1970s and entered into several new fields, including Child Study, Public Relations, Gerontology, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Cooperative Education, and Distance Education. In July 1988, the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul (Halifax) officially transferred ownership of the institution to the Board of Governors.