University of Alberta

The University of Alberta (U of A) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada. The main campus covers 50 city blocks with over 90 buildings directly across the North Saskatchewan River from downtown Edmonton. The enabling legislation is the Post-secondary Learning Act^.
As of 2005 the continued economic boom in Alberta, driven mainly by high energy prices, had resulted in multi-billion dollar government fiscal surpluses. This led to the introduction of Bill 1 by the provincial government, which creates a $4.5 billion endowment for Alberta's post-secondary institutions

Location

The location of the university was to be decided along the same lines as that of Saskatchewan. (The province of Saskatchewan shares the same founding date as Alberta, 1905.) Saskatchewan had to please two competing cities when deciding the location of its capital city and provincial university. Thus, Regina was designated the provincial capital and Saskatoon received the provincial university, the University of Saskatchewan. The same heated wrangling over the location of the provincial capital also took place in Alberta between the cities of Calgary and Edmonton. It was stated that the capital would be north of the North Saskatchewan River and that the university would be in a city south of it. In the end the city of Edmonton became capital and the then-separate city of Strathcona on the south bank of the river, where Premier Alexander Rutherford lived, was granted the university, much to the chagrin of Calgary, for many years to come.
Meanwhile, in 1912 the two cities of Edmonton and Strathcona were amalgamated under the name of the former; Edmonton had thus became both the political and academic capital, at the expense of Calgary. This was just one act in a larger rivalry between the two cities, often called the Battle of Alberta.
In 1940 the Garneau neighbourhood adjacent to the University was chosen as the location for the Garneau Theatre, in large part an effort to garner the University students' patronage.

Faculties

In 1913, a medical school established at the University of Alberta in Edmonton was opened. By 1920, the university had six faculties (Arts and Sciences, Applied Science, Agriculture, Medicine, Dentistry, and Law) and two schools (Pharmacy and Accountancy). It awarded a range of degrees: Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BSc), Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (BSA), Bachelor of Laws (LLB), Bachelor of Pharmacy (PhmB), Bachelor of Divinity (BD), Master of Arts (MA), Master of Science (MSc), and Doctor of Laws (LLD). There were 851 male students and 251 female students, and 171 academic staff, including 14 women.