A draft plan for the university was presented at a synod meeting in Kingston in 1839, with a modified bill introduced through the 13th Parliament of Upper Canada during a session in 1840.

Queen's resulted from years of effort by Presbyterians of Upper Canada to found a college for the education of ministers in the growing colony and to instruct youth in various branches of science and literature.

[3] After Confederation, the college faced ruin when the federal government withdrew its funding and the Commercial Bank of the Midland District collapsed, a disaster which cost Queen's two-thirds of its endowment.

[3] With the additional funds bequeathed from Queen's first major benefactor, Robert Sutherland, the college staved off financial failure and maintained its independence.

[26] The university faced another financial crisis during World War I from a sharp drop in enrolment due to the military enlistment of students, staff, and faculty.

[27] On 18 August 1938, a year prior to the start of World War II, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Queen's to accept an honorary degree.

[3] By the end of the 1960s, like many other Canadian universities, Queen's tripled its enrolment and greatly expanded its faculty, staff, and facilities, as a result of the baby boom and generous support from the public sector.

During this period, Queen's created the Schools of Music, Public Administration (now part of Policy Studies), Rehabilitation Therapy, and Urban and Regional Planning.

[35][36] In 2001, the Senate Educational Equity Committee (SEEC) studied the experiences of visible minority and Aboriginal faculty members at Queen's after a black female professor left, alleging she had experienced racism.

[38] The report concluded "white privilege and power continues to be reflected in the Eurocentric curricula, traditional pedagogical approaches, hiring, promotion and tenure practices, and opportunities for research" at Queen's.

[47] Stringent measures were unveiled by Provost Matthew Evans in response to the deficit, which included a cap on class size, limits on the number of international students, and a hiring freeze.

[47][48][50] Some publications underscored the fiscal crisis, coupled with issues of overworked graduate students, as factors contributing to Queen's decline as a top 15 research university in the country.

The campus grew to its present size of 40 ha (99 acres) through gradual acquisitions of adjacent private lands, and remains the university's largest landholding.

It has two student residences, the Faculty of Education, the Coastal Engineering Lab, and several athletic facilities, including the Richardson Memorial Stadium.

Opened during the 1950s, the field station encompasses approximately 3,000 ha (7,400 acres) of property, a range of habitat types typical of Eastern Ontario, and many species of conservation concern in Canada.

The remainder of the government funds support further development of the technology park to transform the property into a welcoming and dynamic site for business expansion and relocation.

Its mission is to provide academic programs for undergraduate students whose academic interests are oriented toward the United Kingdom, Europe, and the European Union; continuing-education programs for executives and other professional or "special interest" groups; a venue for conferences and meetings; a base for international graduate students and other scholars undertaking research in the United Kingdom and Europe; and an enhanced educational, social, and cultural environment for the local community, using the unique heritage of the castle.

In 2009, with the signing of the Ontario Universities Committed to a Greener World agreement, Queen's pledged to transform its campus into a model of environmental responsibility.

The responsibilities of the Chancellor include presiding over convocations, conferring degrees, and chairing the annual meetings of the council, and is an ex-officio officer and a voting member of the board of trustees.

In a 2011 survey conducted by Mines ParisTech's, they found Queen's placed 38th in the world and first in Canada for number of graduates employed as the chief executive officer (or equivalent) of Fortune 500 companies.

[123] In October 2015, Arthur B. McDonald and Takaaki Kajita (University of Tokyo) jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physics for illustration of neutrino change identities and identification of mass.

The financial aid provided may come in the form of loans, grants, bursaries, scholarships, fellowships, debt reduction, interest relief, and work programs.

[143] The organizations and clubs accredited at Queen's cover a wide range of interests, including academics, culture, religion, social issues, and recreation.

Varsity teams at Queen's include basketball, cross country, Canadian football, ice hockey, rowing, rugby, soccer, and volleyball.

[179] The coat of arms consists of a gold shield with red edges, divided into four triangular compartments by a blue, diagonal St. Andrew's Cross.

In each of the four compartments is an emblem of the university's Canadian and British origins: a pine tree for Canada, a thistle for Scotland, a rose for England, and a shamrock for Ireland.

[4] A number of songs are commonly played and sung at events such as commencement, convocation, and athletic contests, including the "Queen's College Colours" (1897), also known as "Our University Yell" and "Oil Thigh", with words by A.E.

[189] Notable alumni in the field of science include Adolfo de Bold, who won the Gairdner Foundation Award for the discovery and isolation of atrial natriuretic peptide,[190] and Shirley Tilghman, a microbiologist and former President of Princeton University.

[191] Notable Chancellors who were once politicians include Robert Borden, Prime Minister of Canada, and provincial premiers Peter Lougheed and Charles Avery Dunning.

Many alumni have gained international prominence for serving in government, including Prince Takamado, member of the Imperial House of Japan,[196] and Kenneth O.