UNB Fredericton Versus UNB Saint John: How the Two Campuses Differ for Admission and Programs
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Mar 17, 2024 • Admissions & Applications, Canadian Universities & Colleges
UNB Fredericton is the large, original campus with 14 faculties including engineering and law. UNB Saint John is much smaller, holds Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick and specialized allied health programs, and both campuses share one UNB admission process.
Fredericton enrolled 8,536 students and Saint John enrolled 2,241 students in the 2024-25 academic year
🎓 Fredericton hosts UNB's Faculty of Law and its Faculty of Engineering, the oldest engineering program in Canada
Saint John hosts Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick, training about 40 medical students a year as a Dalhousie affiliate on UNB's campus
Fredericton dates to 1785 as the Academy of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Saint John campus moved to its current Tucker Park site in 1968
You apply to UNB once and choose your program, and the campus follows from which program you pick
One university, two very different campuses
The University of New Brunswick runs two campuses that differ far more than their shared name suggests. Fredericton is the large, historic main campus. Saint John is a smaller, specialized campus built around health sciences and applied programs. Both operate under one UNB admissions process, so you do not apply to "UNB Fredericton" or "UNB Saint John" as separate institutions. You apply to UNB and your program determines your campus.
Size: Fredericton is roughly four times larger
In the 2024-25 academic year, UNB Fredericton enrolled 8,536 students against 2,241 at UNB Saint John, putting Fredericton at about 79 percent of total UNB enrollment and Saint John at about 21 percent. If a bigger student body, more clubs and a larger campus community matter to your decision, Fredericton is the clear choice by scale alone.
What Fredericton offers
Fredericton is UNB's original and largest campus, tracing back to 1785 when it started as the Academy of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It now spans fourteen faculties, giving it the broadest program range of the two campuses, including Arts, the Faculty of Management, the Faculty of Computer Science, the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, the Faculty of Kinesiology, the Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences, and the Faculty of Science.
Two faculties stand out specifically. The Faculty of Law exists only at Fredericton, so any UNB law applicant attends this campus regardless of where they grew up in New Brunswick. The Faculty of Engineering also sits at Fredericton and holds the distinction of being the oldest engineering program in Canada, covering chemical, civil, electrical and computer, geodesy and geomatics, and mechanical engineering.
What Saint John offers
UNB Saint John grew out of a downtown Saint John presence that opened in 1964 with just 96 students, before the campus moved to its current Tucker Park location in 1968. It runs smaller than Fredericton but still covers a real range of its own: a Faculty of Arts (history and politics, humanities and languages, psychology, social science), a Faculty of Business, computer science, engineering, a Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences, and a Faculty of Science that includes applied science and engineering.
Notice that business and engineering exist at both campuses, just under different structures. Fredericton's business faculty is named the Faculty of Management, while Saint John runs its own Faculty of Business. Confirm with UNB directly which specific engineering or business stream you would enter at Saint John versus Fredericton, since program depth and course availability differ between the two even where the subject overlaps.
Saint John's clearest specialization is health sciences. Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick , a Dalhousie University affiliate, is based on the Saint John campus and trains roughly 40 medical students a year. This means New Brunswick students pursuing medicine encounter a Dalhousie-run program physically located on a UNB campus, a distinction worth understanding if you are researching medical school pathways from New Brunswick. Saint John also hosts facilities connected to the New Brunswick Community College 's Allied Health Education Centre, reinforcing the campus's health sciences focus. If a physician assistant career is the goal instead, where PA programs actually run and what they require for admission is worth checking before you assume Saint John's health sciences slate covers it. Nursing runs as a shared, bi-campus program between Fredericton and Saint John, with an accelerated version also offered in Moncton.
Side by side
| Fredericton | Saint John | |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment (2024-25) | 8,536 students | 2,241 students |
| Founded | 1785 | 1964, moved to Tucker Park in 1968 |
| Faculty count | 14 faculties | Smaller, specialized faculty list |
| Law | Yes, Fredericton only | Not offered |
| Business | Faculty of Management | Faculty of Business |
| Medicine | Not offered | Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick, about 40 students a year |
| Nursing | Bi-campus program | Bi-campus program |
Admission: one process, program-driven campus choice
UNB runs a single, unified admissions process rather than separate application streams for each campus. Your campus follows automatically from your chosen program: apply for engineering or law and you attend Fredericton, apply for a Saint John-based program and you attend Saint John. There is no separate campus-preference admission bar to clear beyond the standard requirements for your specific program, so focus your research on program-level requirements rather than campus-level ones.
Because business and engineering exist at both campuses under different faculty structures, do not assume identical course requirements or identical admission averages between a Fredericton and a Saint John version of what looks like the same subject. Check the specific faculty page for your intended campus rather than assuming the Fredericton requirements automatically apply to Saint John, or the reverse.
Choosing between them
Pick Fredericton for the widest range of faculties, a larger student population, and law, which only exists on that campus.
Pick Saint John if your goal runs through Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick, allied health programs, the Faculty of Business, or you want a smaller campus environment.
Either way, you graduate as a UNB student with access to UNB's shared services, and the specific campus is set by the program that got you there rather than a separate choice you make upfront.