The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public research university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada (a title also claimed by the University of King's College). With Canada's oldest engineering programme, UNB is consistently ranked by the Times Higher Education amongst the top 300 engineering schools in the world, or top 3% of over 7,000 universities that offer engineering worldwide.
UNB has two main campuses: the original campus in Fredericton (UNBF), established in 1785, and a smaller campus in Saint John (UNBSJ), which opened in 1964. The Saint John campus is home to New Brunswick's anglophone medical school, Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick, an affiliate of Dalhousie University. Additionally, there are two small satellite health sciences campuses in Moncton and Bathurst. UNB offers over 75 degrees in fourteen faculties at the undergraduate and graduate levels, with a total student enrolment of 10,777 between the two principal campuses during the 2024–2025 year. UNB was named the most entrepreneurial university in Canada at the 2014 Startup Canada Awards.
UNB was founded by Loyalists who left the United States after the American Revolution.Happy Birthday to the University of New Brunswick . MacLeans. By Julia Belluz. Retrieved March 3, 2012., and has educated numerous Canadian federal cabinet ministers, including Sir John Douglas Hazen, William Pugsley and Gerald Merrithew, many Premiers of New Brunswick such as Frank McKenna and Blaine Higgs, three puisne justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, Oswald Smith Crocket, James Wilfred Estey, Gérard La Forest, as well as prominent artists and writers. UNB had ties to the Confederation Poets movement; Bliss Carman and Sir Charles G.D. Roberts were alumni. Notable convocation speakers include John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, each receiving a Doctor of Laws from UNB.
History
Founding and charters In 1783, Loyalist settlers began to build upon the ruins of a former Acadian village called Ste-Anne-des-Pays-Bas. The new settlement was named Frederick's Town in honour of Prince Frederick, son of King George III and uncle of Queen Victoria."Fredericton" . Collections Canada. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
Initially modelled on the Anglican ideals of the former King's College in New York, the University of New Brunswick was founded in 1785 as the Academy of Liberal Arts and Sciences, following a petition to the Governor-in-Council on December 13, 1785. The petition requesting the establishment of the school, titled "The Founders' Petition of 1785," was addressed to Governor Thomas Carleton and was signed by seven Loyalist men: William Paine, William Wanton, George Sproule, Zephaniah Kingsley, Sr., John Coffin, Ward Chipman, and Adino Paddock."The Founders' Petition of 1785" . UNB Libraries. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
In response to the request, Carleton requested a drawn "draft charter" modelled on King's College and 6,000 acres of reserved land in Fredericton Parish for the proposed institution. By an 1800 provincial charter, signed by Provincial Secretary Jonathan Odell, the Academy of Liberal Arts and Sciences was transformed into the College of New Brunswick."Historical Sketch of UNB" . About UNB. Retrieved March 3, 2012. The college was succeeded by King's College, which was granted by royal charter in December 1827. King's College operated under the control of the Church of England until 1846 when religious qualifications were officially abolished; the college was declared non-sectarian by the provincial legislature in 1859, when it was transformed into the University of New Brunswick."UNB's Heraldic Tapestries" . UNB Libraries. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
As the College of New Brunswick, the institution had its first president, James Somerville, and awarded its first degrees on February 21, 1828, to three recipients: Daniel Hailes Smith, Samuel Denny Lee Street, and Timothy Robert Wetmore.
By 1867, the University of New Brunswick had two faculties: Arts and Applied Science. It awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Science. The latter was awarded only in the fields of civil engineering, electrical engineering, and forestry.
In September 1886, Mary Kingsley Tibbits became the first regularly admitted female student of UNB. She was initially refused admission after passing matriculation exams in 1885. Following political intervention by MLA John Valentine Ellis, a senate committee voted in June 1886 to admit women to the university. UNB was one of only two Canadian schools offering a Forestry Engineering degree in the late 1800s (the other being the University of Toronto), so many of the first Dominion Forest Rangers (1899–1906) were UNB graduates.
20th century
In 1906, UNB established a bicameral system of university government consisting of a senate responsible for academic policy, and a board of governors exercising exclusive control over financial policy and other matters. The president, appointed by the board, was to provide a link between the two bodies and to provide institutional leadership. At this time, the university had 156 male students, 21 female students, and only eleven academic staff, who were all male.Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada Year Book 1921, Ottawa, 1922.
In 1964, a second, smaller campus was established in Saint John, New Brunswick. The growth of the UNBSJ campus is particularly notable, for the campus began with only 96 students spread throughout various buildings in Saint John's central business district. In 1968, UNBSJ moved to its new home at Tucker Park.
In 1968, the university's governance structure was reorganized with the aim of giving faculty members control of academic affairs. The UNB Act of 1968 led to the formation of two governing bodies, both chaired by the president. The Board of Governors, whose role was to oversee and give guidance to president as "chief executive officer" was to have four faculty representatives, while the majority of the Senate was to be made up of faculty members elected by their peers.
The Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers (AUNBT) was established in 1954; in 1979, this association became the bargaining agent for all full-time academic staff, and in 2008, it achieved certification for contract academic staff.
Throughout the 20th century, the University of New Brunswick held annual convocations during the month of October.
A notable convocation took place on October 8, 1957, when then United States Senator John F. Kennedy attended as a guest speaker and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in a ceremony presided over by Chancellor Lord Beaverbrook.
His younger brother, Robert F. Kennedy, attended another convocation on October 12, 1967, where he delivered the main address and was granted the same degree.
Campuses
The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is split into two primary campuses: the main campus, UNB Fredericton (UNBF), in Fredericton, as well as the smaller campus, UNB Saint John (UNBSJ), which is in the Millidgeville area of New Brunswick, next to the Saint John Regional Hospital.
As of the 2024–2025 academic year, UNB had an enrolment of 10,777, or 8,536 in Fredericton (UNBF) and 2,241 in Saint John (UNBSJ). Both campuses have undergone significant expansion over the years, and many university buildings have received funding from Lord Beaverbrook and other prominent industrialists and philanthropists. UNB's largest expansion coincided with the baby boom, when its Fredericton campus tripled in size.
Fredericton The UNB Fredericton campus is on a hill overlooking the Saint John River. The campus is well known for its colourful fall foliage, Georgian style red-brick buildings, and a very steep hill. UNB Fredericton has shared the "College Hill" with St. Thomas University (STU) since 1964, when the former St. Thomas College moved from Chatham, NB (now Miramichi). While the universities share some infrastructure, they remain separate institutions.
Relocation of the Faculty of Law
In 1959, the Faculty of Law moved from Saint John to Fredericton following a report on the status of legal education in Canada by Professor Maxwell Cohen from McGill University, claiming that the Saint John Law School was only "nominally a faculty of UNB". This prompted Chancellor Lord Beaverbrook and UNB President Colin B. Mackay to permanently move the Law School despite the Dean's objections.
National Historic Sites
Two buildings in Fredericton have been designated National Historic Sites of Canada: the 1827 Sir Howard Douglas Hall (Old Arts), and the 1851 William Brydone Jack Observatory.
Architecture Architect G. Ernest Fairweather designed several of the campus buildings, including the Old Civil Engineering Building (1900) and the Gymnasium (1906).http://www.dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/architects/view/1283 Biographic Dictionary of Architects in Canada 1800–1950 G. Ernest Fairweather In addition, several of the stained glass windows in the Convocation Hall were created by Robert McCausland Limited. UNBF's War Memorial Hall (usually referred to as Memorial Hall), originally built as a science building in 1924, honours the 35 UNB Alumni who died in World War I. UNBF's Brigadier Milton F. Gregg, V.C., Centre for the Study of War and Society (usually referred to as The Gregg Centre) was created in 2006.http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/nic-inm/sm-rm/mdsr-rdr-eng.asp?PID=8513 The Gregg Centre The Richard J. Currie Center, a five-storey 139,000-square-foot building, was constructed in 2013.
Saint John
The UNB Saint John campus (UNBSJ) is in Tucker Park in the Millidgeville neighbourhood, several kilometres north of the city's central business district, and has views of the Kennebecasis River and Grand Bay-Westfield. New Brunswick's largest health care facility, Saint John Regional Hospital, is adjacent to the UNBSJ campus.
Aside from UNB's own facilities, the Saint John campus houses Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick for Dalhousie University, as well as the Gerald S Merrithew Allied Health Education Centre for the New Brunswick Community College.
Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick, which opened in the fall of 2010, is a medical school built with provincial funding that operates as a partnership between the Government of New Brunswick, the University of New Brunswick and Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine. It is the first anglophone medical school programme in New Brunswick, annually serving 40 students. The New Brunswick Community College's Gerald S Merrithew Allied Health Education Centre, which opened on September 1, 2011, is near the Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick building.
History
UNB's presence in Saint John dates back to 1923 when the Saint John Law School, established in 1892, became part of UNB. In 1953, the law school moved to the Starr Residence, known today as Beaverbrook House, which is still operated by UNBSJ. Eventually, after nearly forty years of remaining in Saint John, it relocated to the main campus in Fredericton.
Starting in 1951, UNB offered summer extension courses in Saint John High School and St. Vincent's Convent, which proved to be successful. This highlighted the existing demand for higher education in Saint John, which had been recognized by the city's Board of Trade as early as 1947. In 1959, there was a growing interest in establishing a college in Saint John, and a group called "Saint John College Development Incorporated" began advocating for a postsecondary institution in the city. However, the proposal faced skepticism due to UNB's financial challenges and the perceived surplus of degree-granting institutions in New Brunswick.