The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or Alberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, the university’s first president.
It was enabled through the Post-secondary Learning Act. The university is considered a “comprehensive academic and research university” (ACRU), which means that it offers a range of academic and professional programs that generally lead to undergraduate and graduate levels.
The university comprises four campuses in Edmonton, an Augustana Campus in Camrose, and a staff center in downtown Calgary. The originally north campus consists of 150 buildings covering 50 city blocks on the south rim of the North Saskatchewan River valley, directly across from downtown Edmonton. 39,000 students from Canada and 150 other countries participate in 400 programs in 18 faculties.
The university is a major economic driver in Alberta. Its impact on Alberta’s economy is estimated at $12.3 billion annually or five percent of the province’s gross domestic product.
The Un of A has about 39,300 students, including 7,700 international students representing 151 countries. The university has 3,620 academic staff along with 15,380 support and trust staff.
University professors have won more 3M Teaching Fellowships (Canada’s top award for undergraduate teaching excellence) than any other Canadian university, with 41 awards since 1986. The university offers post-secondary education in about 388 undergraduate and 500 graduate programs.
Tuition and fees for both fall and winter semesters are slightly more than $5,000 for a typical undergraduate arts student, although they vary widely by program. The University of Alberta switched from a 9-point grading scale to the more common 4-point grading scale in September 2003.
Seventy-two Rhodes Scholars have come from the University of Alberta. The University of Alberta also holds 2,599 Academic All-Canadians, the most of any University in Canada.
