Maybe it's just me, but is there a reason why all Canadian universities are public? Is this statement true? Would private universities benefit the higher education system as a whole as well? Thanks for your explanation and tolerance of my ignorance.

well like parts of the united states universities have their origins in religion mostly which has made for a great problem in nova scotia. Too many universities for the population. Here's a list
St. Francis Xavier, Antigonish , Catholic School
St. Mary's , Halifax , Catholic School
Mount St. Vincent, Halifax , Catholic School for Females
Dalhousie, Halifax , Protestant School
Acadia, Wolfville, Baptist School
College St. Anne , Clairre, Acadian French School
Kings , Halifax , Protestant school
University college of Cape Breton, Sydney, A make work project in industrial cape breton in the 1990's
Then you have about 12 campus' of the nova scotia community college
The Nova Scotia College of Arts and Design , Halifax

With that many colleges competting for a population of about 950,000 and declining we are over serviced by more university seats then any other province or state per capita in all of north america.

In the states you do have religion based schools such as Brigham young, Notre Dame, Southern Methodist but it is usually just one or two per state and never the same religion. With 4 catholic universities in nova scotia I would not doubt that is higher then Boston or an Irish county for that matter.

jim jones

Yes, but The religious origins of universities has almost no bearing on where people attend school nowadays.

I've never known the abundance of universities in NS to have problems with enrollment numbers? The province has become a destination for university stundents from across the country. I don't know a lot about St. Anne's, Mount St. Vincent or CBU but Acadia, St. Mary's, Dalhousie, Kings and St. FX are all pretty full and thriving.

I think the problem might be that all of the temporary residents (students who come from rural areas or from other parts of the country, which are a lot) increase the population significantly during the winter months, which isn't always accounted for in infrastructure such as bus transit systems.

I don't really know the reason why Canada is big on public schools. Maybe because there were so many schools with religious origins, so at one time they were already somewhat private. Through the 1950s and 60s, a lot of the country did away with the (entirely) religious school system (elementary through high school) and I guess the universities followed with that movement.

Other schools, such as Dalhousie (Jim, I don't think it was protestant) have always been open to all. I believe it was part of the Dal's credo upon its founding that it would be open to all people regardless of race or religion.

Whereas had more schools been strictly private institutes (with no religious affiliation) in the earlier days, maybe we'd have more nowadays.

Oh, and don't forget about the Nova Scotia Agricultural College! They offer a diploma (not bachelor) in engineering, among other things.

St. Mary's actually has the highest proportion of students from outside the country than any other university in Canada. And STFX and Acadia are consistantly rated the best undergraduate schools in the country.

^ Good call - I almost forgot about the amount of worldly students in NS. I attended school at both St. Mary's and Dalhousie and every class was like a multi-cultural fest!

Oh dont get me wrong as far as the worthyness of all these universities but you then have to fund competting music programs in saint mary's , st fx and acadia
You have competition for different schools offering business degrees. The main reason that offshore students come to uni in nova scotia is that it is cheaper then most places especially the united states.

It has been looked at many times and agreed apon even in academic circles that a rationalization of the nova scotia university offerings have to be pared down.
The problem is the politics that will go with that.

If you look at the other three atlantic provinces you can see they have a combined population larger then nova scotias yet fewer universities.
Newfoundland -Memorial, in ST. johns and cornerbrook
New Brunswick- University of moncton (and satelite campus' in shipagan, bathhurst and campbellton)
-Mount Allison
-University of New Brunswick( satelite campus in saint john)
-St Thomas
Prince Edward Island- UPEI
- Holland College

New Brunswick is especially rational in the approach whereas Nova Scotia communities look at the univeristy and colleges as a couple of things A. an economic developement tool B. A tool of political power or influence C. A tool of relgion in the late 1800's thru to the mid 1900's. Yes people dont go on religion as much in the 2000's but the roots of these universities are heavliy from religion. The high school of Pictou Academy was originally the start of the University of Glasgow Scotland planting higher education in northern nova scotia of the protestants. The Halifax and Antigonish Catholics put a stop to that because of their support for st mary's and st fx of course.
Closing down ST fx or Acadia would be like bulldozing antigonish or wolfville.
Halifax would certainly experience a great loss if Dalhousie or St mary were shutt down. Academic Administrators can hold think tanks on what to
do but the political might on the allumni of all these universities is very strong.
Considering the powerful people who have gone thru the halls of STFX like brain mulroney, and charles keating(the nova scotian ) i would not want to be the Premier who axed the XMEN.

Jim jones