St. Mary's University is located in historic Halifax, Nova scotia. This University is Canada's oldest English-speaking Roman Catholic University as well as the only one in the maritime region that has an astronomy program or a PhD program in Business Administration. The focus of St. Mary's is to turn the student into a true global citizen. St. Mary's University with about 8600 students, offers over 60 majors derived from the faculties of Arts, Commerce, and Science, including 17 graduate programs. There is also 6 certificate programs offered in the faculty of arts and also numerous co-op programs in commerce and science.

St. Mary's states that their programs are updated continually to stay in step with the global knowledge economy. Furthermore, there are many scholarships available and support outlets to enable the student to study abroad. Maclean's Magazine has recently ranked SMU as number 1 in terms of PhD holding, full time faculty members.