For the college in the Bronx, New York, see College of Mount Saint Vincent Mount Saint Vincent University is a university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was established in 1873 and is locally referred to as The Mount. Established by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1873, the Mount was one of the only institutions of higher education for women in Canada at a time when women could not vote. The original purpose of the academy was to train novices and young sisters as teachers, but the Sisters also recognized a need to educate other young women. Over the ensuing years, the order developed a convent, schools, an orphanage, and health care facilities throughout the Halifax area, as well as across North America. By 1912, the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul recognized the need to offer greater opportunity through university education and adopted a progressive plan to establish a college for young women. It was two years later, in 1914 that the Sisters partnered with Dalhousie University, enabling Mount Saint Vincent to offer the first two years of a bachelor’s degree program to be credited toward a Dalhousie degree.