Backgrounder
Merger Discussions
Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia Agricultural College

NSAC Profile 2011
The Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) is a small but diversified teaching and research institution located in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia.

Founded in 1905 to train Atlantic Canadians in the best practices of farming, NSAC now offers a broad range of academic and technical training programs in agricultural sciences and business, aquaculture, environment and rural issues. 

In conjunction with Dalhousie University, NSAC offers a bachelor and masters program in Science (Agriculture) along with a Bachelor of Technology and Engineering Diploma.  Technology disciplines include training for veterinary technicians and enterprise managers --farming, dairy, equine, and others. Organic and master gardener certificates are among the continuing education programs available.  

Some 960 NSAC students were enrolled at the NSAC in 2010-2011, about 20 per cent of which were international students. NSAC’s reciprocal agreements with institutions in India, China, the Netherlands and other countries have contributed to a steady increase in enrolment.

NSAC ranks number one in research intensity among Atlantic Canadian universities, with a high proportion of its 75 faculty involved in research. Current industry and government partnerships support applied research in farm energy conservation, edible horticulture, tree fruit and blueberry bio-product development, mink immunology, plant stress physiology, entomology, waste management, and precision agricultural systems.

NSAC has a number of research facilities unique to the Atlantic region, including a 200-hectare farm, extensive pasture, field and turfgrass facilities, greenhouses, an experimental orchard and a number of outlying research facilities.  A state of the art Poultry Research Centre was opened in 2007, and the Atlantic Centre for Agricultural Innovation (ACAI) centre is currently under construction.

NSAC Governance
NSAC is the only institution of its kind in Canada to operate as a division of its provincial Department of Agriculture, and numerous consultants’ reports since the 1990s have acknowledged that a modern, post-secondary agricultural institution needs a different governance model.

In 2007, the Province of Nova Scotia decided to establish NSAC as a board-governed Crown corporation, an arrangement made official by the passage of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College Act in 2008.

Sections of the act were proclaimed in 2009 to activate NSAC's transition to a Crown; a transitional board was appointed and a project team was assigned to work on the Nova Scotia Agricultural College Governance Transition Project from about July 2010 to April 2011.

Merger with Dalhousie
The idea of strengthening and formalizing ties with Dalhousie has been active for many years.

Dalhousie has had a formal relationship with NSAC, granting bachelors degrees since the mid 1980's and masters degrees since the early 1990's. NSAC faculty have a presence on the Dalhousie Senate, and Dalhousie is represented on the NSAC Faculty Council.

In September, 2010, in the Report on the University System in Nova Scotia, Tim O’Neill acknowledged the need to continue the process to shepherd the college out of the Department of Agriculture, and “consider integrating Nova Scotia Agricultural College into Dalhousie University as the college ceases as a government entity.”

Dalhousie started discussions with government officials early in 2011 to consider the possibility of a merger between the two institutions. By late April, the Policy and Planning Committee of executive council approved the idea in principle, and a team of government officials started making arrangements for merger discussions.

The merger process will build on much of the work of the NSAC Governance Transition Project, which was focused primarily on an assessment of the college’s operations and facilities.