page_title: University of Victoria
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: University of Victoria / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Provincial Normal School, Saanich, British Columbia, Canada
context_page_description: The University of Victoria is a public research university located in the Greater Victoria municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary institution established in British Columbia in 1903. It operated as an affiliated college until 1963 when it was reorganized into the present University of Victoria. UVic has ranked as the second best comprehensive university in Canada for three successive years.
  Its campus is situated 7 km north of Downtown Victoria and is spread over 403 acres. The university operates nine academic faculties and schools including the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business and the Faculties of Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Human & Social Development, Humanities, Law, Science, and Social Sciences.
  It is the nation's lead institution in the VENUS and NEPTUNE deep-water seafloor observatory projects. The university also hosts and leads the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions and is home to two Environment Canada labs: the Canadian Center for Climate Modelling and Analysis and the Water and Climate Impacts Research Centre.
context_section_description: The University of Victoria is the oldest post-secondary institution in British Columbia, established in 1903 as an affiliated college of McGill University before gaining full autonomy through a charter on July 1, 1963. Victoria College, which had been established in 1903 as an affiliated college of McGill University, gained autonomy and full degree granting status on March 1, 1963. The non-denominational university had enjoyed 60 years of prior teaching tradition at the university level as Victoria College. This 60 years of history may be viewed conveniently in three distinct stages.
  Between the years 1903 and 1915, Victoria College was affiliated with McGill University, offering first- and second-year McGill courses in Arts and Science. Administered locally by the Victoria School Board, the College was an adjunct to Victoria High School and shared its facilities. Both institutions were under the direction of a single Principal: E.B. Paul, 1903–1908; and S.J. Willis, 1908–1915.
  The opening in 1915 of the University of British Columbia, established by Act of Legislature in 1908, obliged the college to suspend operations in higher education in Victoria. University of British Columbia was created in 1908. A single, public provincial university, it was modeled on the American state university, with an emphasis on extension work and applied research. The governance was modeled on the provincial University of Toronto Act of 1906 which established a bicameral system of university government consisting of a senate (faculty), responsible for academic policy, and a board of governors (citizens) exercising exclusive control over financial policy and having 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 1920, as a result of local demands, Victoria College began the second stage of its development, reborn in affiliation with the University of British Columbia. Though still administered by the Victoria School Board, the college was now completely separated from Victoria High School, moving in 1921 into the magnificent Dunsmuir mansion known as Craigdarroch Castle. Over the next two decades, under Principals E.B. Paul and P.H. Elliott, Victoria College built a reputation for thorough and scholarly instruction in first- and second-year arts and science. It was also during this period that future author Pierre Berton edited and served as principal cartoonist for the student newsletter, The Microscope. Between the years 1921-1944, the enrolment at Victoria College did not very often reach above 250. However, in 1945, 128 servicemen returned from World War II. This pushed enrolment up to 400, and in 1946; 600.
  The final stage, between the years 1945 and 1963, saw the transition from two-year college to university, under Principals J.M. Ewing and W.H. Hickman.
  During this period, the college was governed by the Victoria College Council, representative of the parent University of British Columbia, the Greater Victoria School Board, and the provincial Department of Education. Physical changes were many. In 1946 the college was forced by postwar enrolment to move from Craigdarroch to the Lansdowne campus of the Provincial Normal School, the current location of Camosun College's Lansdowne Campus. The Normal School, itself an institution with a long and honourable history, joined Victoria College in 1956 as its Faculty of Education. Late in this transitional period (through the co-operation of the Department of National Defence and the Hudson's Bay Company) the 284-acre (1,1 km²)--now 385-acre (1.6 km²)--campus at Gordon Head was acquired. Academic expansion was rapid after 1956, until in 1961 the college, still in affiliation with UBC, awarded its first bachelor's degrees.
  In the early part of this 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 w
caption: The Young building at Camosun College housed Victoria College, and its successor institution, the University of Victoria, from 1946 to 1967
exif: {"Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "ILCE-6000", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2018:04:30 10:54:22", "Image ExifOffset": "202", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "908", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11712", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:04:29 18:19:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:04:29 18:19:04", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "870723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6918863/1000000", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "6211/640", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "463/128", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "16", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "83662979/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "83662979/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "24", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[16, 50, 7/2, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS"}