The University of Alberta is a public institution that was founded in 1908. Located in the province of Alberta in Western Canada, around 80 percent of the university's students study at the undergraduate level. The university is made up of five campuses, four of which are in the city of Edmonton, including the main North Campus, which covers around 50 city blocks. The university's fifth site, the Augustana Campus, is located roughly an hour away from Edmonton in the rural city of Camrose. Some 1,000 students study at the smaller Augustana Campus, which focuses on liberal arts and sciences.
The university offers studies in a range of disciplines, such as arts, business, engineering and medicine. English is the language of instruction, with the exception of the university’s Campus Saint-Jean, where French is the primary language. More than 20 percent of the University of Alberta student body is international, and tuition costs are higher for these students. The school’s academic calendar is made up of fall and winter terms, as well as shorter, optional spring and summer terms. University housing is available for undergraduate and graduate students in Edmonton and at the Augustana campus. The University of Alberta is affiliated with major research institutions, such as the multidisciplinary National Institute for Nanotechnology. The university also has more than 400 research, teaching and exchange agreements with schools and other organizations around the world, such as the University of Munich in Germany and the University of Western Australia.
Established in 1908 in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, the University of Alberta is a public research university in Canada, located at the edge of the North Saskatchewan River valley.
Its main campus spans about 50 blocks of the city, and the university comprises a total of 150 buildings spread over four campuses.
Edmonton is home to the world’s second biggest fringe theatre festival, a folk music festival, and the university’s ‘festival of ideas’.
Its South Campus focuses on agricultural research and is also home to a 32,516m2 sports centre, which incorporates various sports clubs, 14 varsity teams and the Canadian women’s national basketball team.
An hour’s drive away in rural Camrose is the Augustana Campus, a residential learning environment for liberal arts and sciences.
In keeping with Edmonton’s French-speaking community, the university offers French instruction at the Faculté Saint-Jean, which provides courses in arts, science, education, commerce, engineering, nursing, conservation and environmental sciences.
There is also Enterprise Square in downtown Edmonton which houses, among other things, the Alberta School of Business.
The university is the only one in Canada to offer programs in native studies, through which students can learn about the aboriginal experience, including language, culture, history and more.
It is also well known for its palaeontology research and its faculty includes world-famous dinosaur experts.
There are over 260,000 alumni of the university, who between them have founded over 70,000 organisations throughout the world, one-third of which have a cultural, environmental or social mission or are non-profit.
Alberta has produced one Nobel Laureate, four justices of the supreme court of Canada, including a chief justice, and housed 68 Rhodes Scholars, the highest number in Canada.
