University of Manitoba

Overview

The University of Manitoba (UM) is a public research university in Manitoba, Canada, the largest in the region in terms of student body and campus area. It is also the most active in postsecondary education research in Manitoba, earning it a reputation for its academic and research programs. Founded in 1877, UM has its main campus in southern Winnipeg with its other campuses located across the city.

The university is one of the most internationalized universities in Canada, playing host to a sizable body of foreign students enrolled in any of its five colleges, notably the University of St. Boniface where courses are in French, St. John’s College, St. Paul’s College and St. Andrew’s College. Each college administers several faculties that include agriculture and food sciences, rehabilitation sciences, kinesiology and recreation management. Other faculties are in arts engineering, business, law, music, human ecology, and native studies.

The University of Manitoba offers graduate academic units that are credited to master’s and PhD degrees.

A research-intensive institution, UM is home to major research centers that include the Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures (ISIS) located in its Faculty of Engineering. ISIS focuses on research in civil engineering innovations. Likewise, the Centre for Defence and Security Studies is located inside the UM campus administering the teaching, research, and outreach projects to help advance the understanding of Canada’s defense and security areas.

Meanwhile, students and researchers have access to UM’s extensive collections of artifacts, cartographic materials, drawings, prints and text records from the region, which are housed in the Anthropology Laboratory Museum. The library also archives volumes of archaeological and ceremonial items, aquatic, zooarchaeological and biological objects and collections important to researchers in Earth Science, Paleontology, and Geology.

The University of Manitoba was granted its charter in February 1877 as a nondenominational higher learning institution. It was the first university founded in western Canada. UM would expand years later, adding more colleges and facilities in its campuses. These include the founding of the Manitoba Medical College in 1882, the Bacteriological Research Building in 1897, and the Sciences Building in 1899. By the early 1900s, the university would introduce the German-American model of graduate degrees requiring the completion of a thesis.

As a leading Canadian university, UM is not found wanting in notable alumni who include several public officials, Supreme Court justices and Members of Parliament.