page_title: University of Manitoba
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: University of Manitoba / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: A picture of Robson Hall (Faculty of Law - University of Manitoba)
context_page_description: The University of Manitoba is a public research university in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Its main campus is located in the Fort Garry neighbourhood of southern Winnipeg with other campuses throughout the city. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of western Canada. The university maintains a reputation as a top research-intensive post-secondary educational institution and conducts more research annually than any other university in the region.
  The U of M is the largest university both by total student enrolment and campus area in the province of Manitoba, and the 17th-largest in all of Canada. The campus boasts dozens of faculties and hundreds of degree programs. The U of M is a member of the U15 and of Universities Canada, while its global affiliations include the International Association of Universities and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Its increased global outreach has resulted in one of the most internationally diverse student bodies in Canada, while its competitive academic and research programs have consistently ranked among the top in the Canadian Prairies.
context_section_description: The University of Manitoba is a non-denominational university, founded by Alexander Morris, that received a charter on February 28, 1877, becoming the first university to be established in all of western Canada. It officially opened on June 20, 1877 to confer degrees on students graduating from its three founding colleges: St. Boniface College (Roman Catholic/Francophone), St John's College (Anglican), and Manitoba College (Presbyterian). The U of M would grant its first degrees in 1880.
  The University would add a number of colleges to its corporate and associative body since. In 1882, the Manitoba Medical College, founded by physicians and surgeons, became a part of the University. The College's Bacteriological Research Building would be designed by architect Charles Henry Wheeler in 1897, while the Science Building, between 1899–1900 by architect George Creeford Browne. Other colleges soon followed:
  Methodist Church's Wesley College (1888)
  Manitoba College of Pharmacy (1902)
  Manitoba Agriculture College (1906)
  St. Paul's College (1931)
  Brandon College (1938)
  St. Andrew's College (1946)
  In 1901, the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba would change the University Act so as to allow the University to do its own teaching. In 1905, a building in downtown Winnipeg became the University's first teaching facility, with a staff of six science professors. The governance would be modeled on the provincial University of Toronto Act (1906), which would establish a bicameral system of university government consisting of a senate (faculty), who are responsible for academic policy, and a board of governors (citizens), who exercise exclusive control over financial policy and have formal authority in all other matters. The president, appointed by the board, was to provide a link between the two bodies and to perform institutional leadership.
  In the early part of the 20th century, professional education expanded beyond the traditional fields of 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 Manitoba Medical Alumni Association would erect the Medical Corps Memorial, dedicated to the memory of the graduates and students of the University of Manitoba Medical College, who had laid down their lives during the North West Rebellion (1 name); 1900 South African War (1 name); and The Great War [i.e., World War I] (7 names).
  The first school of architecture in western Canada was founded in 1919 at the University of Manitoba.
  
  By 1920, the University would be the largest university in the Canadian Prairies and the fifth largest in Canada, with 1,654 male and 359 female students, as well as 184 academic staff (including 6 women). It had eight faculties: Arts, Science, Law, Medicine, Engineering, Architecture, Pharmacy, and Agriculture.
  The Faculty of Law was an affiliated college, the Manitoba Law School, which was founded in 1914 by the University and the Law Society of Manitoba. In 1920, the college had 123 students (including 5 women), and 21 academic staff. The college would become a full part of the university in 1966.
  Originally located on Broadway, the University would move to its permanent site in Fort Garry in 1929, following the addition of more programs, schools, and faculties. The university maintained the Broadway facilities for many years.
  The University would establish an Evening Institute in 1936.
  St. Andrew's College, which originally trained the ministry for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, became an affiliated college in 1981. The College would be the first Ukrainian-language college opened by the Orthodox Church in North America. Today, it remains a home to a large Ukrainian cultural and religious library.
  Responding to population pressure, the policy of university education would be initiated in the 1960s. As result, in 1967, two of the colleges that had originally been part of the University of Manitoba were given university status of their own by the provincial government: United College, whic
caption: Robson Hall – Faculty of Law
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