Mount Allison University

Mount Allison University (also Mount A or MtA) is a Canadian primarily undergraduate liberal arts university located in Sackville, New Brunswick, founded in 1839. Mount Allison was the first university in the British Empire to award a baccalaureate to a woman (Grace Annie Lockhart, B.Sc., 1875). It was also the first university in Canada to grant a bachelors of arts to a woman (Harriet Starr Stewart). Graduates of Mount Allison have been awarded a total of 56 Rhodes Scholarships, the highest per capita of any university in the Commonwealth of Nations. Among universities in Canada, Mount Allison is one of the wealthiest on an endowment per student basis. Of the 69 universities reporting on endowment funds nationally, Mount Allison has the largest endowment fund per student in Canada (when small residential colleges federated with larger universities are excluded). History Mount Allison traces its roots to 1839 when a Sackville merchant proposed the creation of a school of elementary and higher learning. The university is a secular (but United Church-affiliated) primarily undergraduate liberal arts university, with classes beginning in Sackville, New Brunswick on January 19, 1843. Mount Allison was named after Charles Frederick Allison, in honour of his gift of land and money. Its origins were steeped in the Methodist faith and it was designed to prepare men for the ministry and to supply education for lay members. The university was chartered on April 14, 1849.