Prince of Wales College (PWC) is a former
university collegeThe term "university college" is used in a number of countries to denote college institutions that provide tertiary education but do not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university...
, which was located in
CharlottetownCharlottetown is a Canadian city. It is both the largest city on and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, Charlottetown was first incorporated as a town in 1855 and designated as a city in 1885...
,
Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. PWC merged with
St. Dunstan's UniversitySt. Dunstan's University is a former university which was located on the northern outskirts of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. SDU merged with Prince of Wales College in 1969 to form the University of Prince Edward Island.St...
in 1969 to form the
University of Prince Edward IslandThe University of Prince Edward Island is a public liberal arts university in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the sole university in the province. Founded in 1969, it traces its roots back to its two earlier predecessor organizations, St. Dunstan's University and Prince of Wales...
.
PWC traces its history to 1804 when land was set aside by Lieutenant-Governor
Edmund FanningEdmund Fanning first gained fame for his role in the War of the Regulation, but later had a distinguished career as a colonial governor and British general.right| Sketch of Edmund Fanning...
for a college - the colony's first. In 1821 a district school called the
National School opened on the site located on Kent Street in the east end of Charlottetown. In 1835
Central Academy opened on a site along Grafton Street, immediately south of the National School. The National School closed in the early 1850s and the provincial
Normal School for training teachers opened on the site in 1856. In 1860, an upgraded Central Academy was renamed
Prince of Wales College.
The Prince of Wales College (PWC) was established followed the visit of
Prince of WalesPrince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
(later
King Edward VIIEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
) to
CharlottetownCharlottetown is a Canadian city. It is both the largest city on and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, Charlottetown was first incorporated as a town in 1855 and designated as a city in 1885...
,
Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
in 1860.
In 1879, PWC became co-educational and the Normal School was merged into the institution.
Ferdinand Herbert Marani (architect) of Marani & Paisley designed the PWC's Weymouth Street campus in 1932.
PWC's Grafton Street campus underwent several changes as buildings evolved from wooden structures into the stone structures which stand today. PWC was a non-denominational or inter-denominational college which served to provide an education comparable to the present-day
CEGEPCEGEP is an acronym for , which is literally translated as "College of General and Vocational Education" but commonly called "General and Vocational College" in circles not influenced by Quebec English. It refers to the public post-secondary education collegiate institutions exclusive to the...
colleges in Quebec, namely
senior matriculationMatriculation, in the broadest sense, means to be registered or added to a list, from the Latin matricula – little list. In Scottish heraldry, for instance, a matriculation is a registration of armorial bearings...
and one or several years of
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. It was the non-denominational character of PWC which led many of Island Roman Catholics to label the school as being "Protestant". Many Catholic women attended PWC despite this label because they were barred from attending Catholic St. Dunstan's University. It was not until 1965 that the provincial government granted PWC a degree-granting charter and its only
BachelorA bachelor is a man above the age of majority who has never been married . Unlike his female counterpart, the spinster, a bachelor may have had children...
degrees were awarded in the spring 1969 convocation.
PWC had several administrators who proved their importance to Prince Edward Island's education profession:
- Dr. Alexander Anderson served as professor 1862–1868 and principal of PWC from 1868–1901, having influenced many islanders, including Lucy Maud Montgomery
Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE , called "Maud" by family and friends and publicly known as L.M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success...
.
- Dr. Samuel Napier Robertson served as professor 1869–1901 and took over as principal of PWC following Anderson's move into the provincial civil service, serving until 1937.
- Dr. Frank MacKinnon served as professor 1919–1937 and was the last principal of PWC.
PWC held high academic standards for its students and as early as the 1910s,
McGill UniversityMohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
entered into talks about making PWC into its Atlantic coast counterpart to the
University of VictoriaThe University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...
(which it had helped to establish and nurture). Master plans had called for quadrupling the size of the PWC Grafton Street campus to encompass most of what is now the eastern end of downtown Charlottetown with the proposed PWC-McGill campus being built along the area bounded by Grafton, Prince, Kent, and Edward Streets in a massive redevelopment of the community.
The plans did not come to fruition and by the 1960s, the provincial government in
Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
began a critical study of its post-secondary education institutions (PWC and SDU), concluding that a merger to form a provincial university was the desired funding and service model for future Island students. The merger was not without controversy as emotions ran their course on the part of supporters of both institutions, however in May, 1969 the last classes graduated from PWC and SDU and the institutions were merged into the
University of Prince Edward IslandThe University of Prince Edward Island is a public liberal arts university in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the sole university in the province. Founded in 1969, it traces its roots back to its two earlier predecessor organizations, St. Dunstan's University and Prince of Wales...
which opened for the first time in September 1969 on the now-former SDU campus. The PWC campus on Grafton Street was taken over by the provincial government and formed the basis for the new provincial
community collegeA community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...
,
Holland CollegeHolland College is the provincial community college for the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. It is named after British Army engineer and surveyor Captain Samuel Holland...
.