A post-Second World War enrollment boom mandated an expansion which saw new residences and teaching buildings constructed on the campus located along Charlottetown's Elm Avenue (the Malpeque Road).
SDU received a provincial degree-granting charter in 1917 but didn't actually award its first bachelor's degrees until the spring 1941 convocation.
[citation needed] Similarly to PWC, SDU also operated a high school, offering senior matriculation to those students wishing to continue into academic or professional studies.
By the 1960s, the provincial government in Prince Edward Island began a critical study of its post-secondary education institutions (PWC and SDU), concluding that a merger to form a provincial university was the desired funding and service model for future students.
The merger was not without controversy as emotions ran high among supporters of both institutions; however, in May 1969 the last classes graduated from PWC and SDU, and the institutions were merged into the University of Prince Edward Island, which opened for the first time in September 1969 on what had been the SDU campus.