American Revolution to Canadian Confederation
University of New Brunswick
Loyalists who settled in Nova Scotia who had been involved with American higher education, most notably Charles Inglis of King's College, New York; Benjamin Moore; and Jonathan Odell, drew up a plan for the future education of their sons in Nova Scotia. One result was the creation of King's College in 1789 in Windsor, Nova Scotia. The University of New Brunswick was established in 1785 as a non-denominational institute, The Academy of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It transformed into the Anglican-affiliated College of New Brunswick in 1800, and then King's College in 1828, which is when it granted its first degrees. Finally, it became the non-denominational University of New Brunswick in 1859.
Mount Allison University
In June 1839, Charles Allison proposed to the Wesleyan Methodists that a school of elementary and higher learning be built. His offer to purchase a site in Sackville, to erect a suitable building for an academy, and to contribute operating funds of £100 a year for 10 years was accepted and the Wesleyan Academy for boys, which was later elevated to the status of a university, was opened in 1843. In 1854, a girls' institution (later known as the "Ladies College") was opened as a branch institution to complement the boys' academy. By 1858, both had attained degree-granting status and were referred to as Mount Allison College. Mount Allison Wesleyan College was established in 1862 with degree-granting powers on behalf of the other Academies and the first two students, Howard Sprague and Josiah Wood, graduated in May 1863. Mount Allison was the first university in the British Empire to confer a bachelor's degree to a woman in 1875, (Grace Annie Lockhart, B.Sc.) and the first university in Canada to grant a Bachelor of Arts degree to a woman in 1882, (Harriet Starr Stewart, B.A.). For nearly a century, Mount Allison functioned as three distinct, mutually enriching parts: the College proper, which became the University of Mount Allison College in 1886., the Boys' Academy and the Ladies College, the later two closing in 1953 and 1946 respectively.
Collège Saint-Joseph
The Collège Saint-Joseph was founded on 10 October 1864 in Memramcook by Father Camille Lefebvre of the order of Sainte-Croix. Its first home was the former Saint-Thomas Seminary, which had closed 2 years earlier. The Collège was the first Francophone degree-granting post-secondary institution in Atlantic Canada. The Collège received its university charter from the province on 23 March 1868 and full university status in 1888. It was renamed in 1898 the University of St Joseph's College. In 1906 it was admitted by Oxford University to the statute of Colonial University, and in 1928 became St Joseph's University. Education was offered bilingually as it admitted not only Acadians but also Irish Catholics. The Collège Saint-Joseph, along with two others, was later subsumed into the Université de Moncton, as described below.
Confederation
At the Charlottetown Conference in 1864, representatives from the British North America colonies - Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and the Province of Canada - gathered to discuss Confederation. In 1867, the British North America Act, 1867 was passed by the British government and then given the Queen's assent. It established Confederation and outlined division of responsibility between the provincial and federal governments in several areas, setting education as the responsibility of the provinces.
Into the twentieth century
St. Thomas University
An institution called St. Thomas College was established in 1910 by catholic Bishop of Chatham, Thomas F. Barry, in Chatham, New Brunswick, to provide education for secondary and junior college level male students. Until 1934, St. Thomas College remained a High School and Junior College, but in that year, it became a degree-granting institution upon receipt of its University Charter from the provincial legislature of New Brunswick. St. Thomas College changed to St. Thomas University in 1960 and in 1961, the high school courses were removed from the curriculum. In 1962, St. Thomas entered into a federation with the University of New Brunswick and by 1964, relocated its campus to Fredericton. To avoid duplicate services, the two universities share each other's libraries and St. Thomas students have access to UNB's scientific, cultural, and athletic facilities.
University of Moncton/Université de Moncton
Université de Moncton, a francophone university with campuses in Moncton, Edmundston and Shippagan, was formed in 1963 as an initial amalgamation of three colleges: the Collège Saint-Joseph, the Collège du Sacré-Coeur de Bathurst, and the Collège Saint-Louis d'Edmundston after the recommendations of a Royal Commission On Higher Education, which was headed by John Deutsch, Adrien Cormier and Robert Maxwell, then the superintendent of schools in Carlton County. The commission reported favorably to the creation of a French-language institution on 21 June 1962.
Excluding Quebec, the Université de Moncton is the largest francophone university in Canada.
The Community Colleges (NBCC and CCNB)
In 1973, the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) was established with a mandate to provide post-secondary non-university education throughout the Province. The opportunity to train students on emerging occupations near their homes was also recognized. In 1980, its corporate structure would be replaced by a governmental one with the creation of the Department of Continuing Education, later renamed the Department of Community Colleges, with nine locations throughout New Brunswick and serving both the anglophone and francophone communities. The 1993 Commission on Excellence in Education recommended NBCC be established as a crown-owned corporation, and in 1996, it was restructured as a Special Operating Agency (SOA) so as to operate in a more business-like manner and gain more financial and administrative independence. The 2010 New Brunswick Community Colleges Act served to create two autonomously governed colleges, one Anglophone with six campuses and one Francophone with five campuses.
New Brunswick College of Craft and Design (NBCCD)
The New Brunswick College of Craft and Design (NBCCD) was founded in 1938 by the government to train rural hand-weavers. In the 1950s after World War II it reopened a summer program; in the 1960s it was called The Crafts School; and in 2007 it was transformed into a comprehensive college offering diplomas and the Bachelor of Applied Arts degree.
Maritime College of Forest Technology
The Maritime College of Forest Technology, renamed from The Maritime Forest Ranger School in 2003, began in 1946, as a co-operative effort of the provincial governments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and the wood-using industries of the two provinces. The francophone program in Bathurst was started in 1982. Present facilities at the Fredericton Campus were completed in 1986. The objective of the College is to produce competent forest technologists for service with private, industrial or public (government) forestry or natural resource organizations. The program is officially recognized by the Society of American Foresters, and the Association of Registered Professional Foresters of New Brunswick.
Developments in Governance
In 1974, the New Brunswick Council on Higher Education was established as a buffer between the government and post-secondary institutions. It makes recommendations regarding funding. In 1991, the Department of Advanced Education and Training, which had been created in 1985, was merged with the department of Labour to become the Department of Advanced Education and Labour. This would again split in 1998 into the Department of Labour and the Department of Education, the latter absorbing the responsibilities of the Department of Advanced Education.
Twenty-first century developments
Private Chartered Universities
There are three private chartered universities in New Brunswick, all with religious affiliation. These are Crandall University, affiliated with the Atlantic Baptist Church, in Moncton, the evangelical Christian Kingswood University in Sussex and the Christian trans-denominational St. Stephen's University in St. Stephen.
Private For-Profit Universities
New Brunswick adopted the Degree Granting Act in 2001, which allowed private for-profit institutions to confer university degrees. The Act provides for evaluation of the quality of programs that lead to a degree offered by all public and private institutions in New Brunswick. There are currently two institutions that have been designated to offer specific degrees through that legislation. They include Yorkville University, which was established in 2003 and offers a combination of on-line and on-site degrees; and the University of Fredericton, which now provides certificate and graduate degree programs in business leadership.
Further Developments in Governance
Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission Act was passed in 2005. Ratified by the Council of Maritime Premiers, the act defined the mandate of the Commission as both improving and providing the best possible service to students as lifelong learners in the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
The Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour (PETL), which had undergone numerous name changes and departmental mergers over the past years, launched the Commission on Post-Secondary Education in 2007 to make recommendations that would help to make the post-secondary education and training system more accessible, collaborative, competitive, and relevant.