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The Faculty of Dentistry is the only dental school east of Montreal and educates over three-quarters of dentists practising in Atlantic Canada. Dalhousie created the faculty in 1908 in affiliation with the recently established Maritime Dental College for the purpose of examining candidates and conferring the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. Dalhousie also provided lecture and clinical facilities in what is now known as the Forrest Building; in 1912 Dalhousie also assumed responsibility for instruction, and the four students who graduated that year did so as the first class in the Faculty of Dentistry. Teaching continued to be carried out by part-time dental practitioners; with the exception of a brief period in the late forties, until 1953 there was only one full-time faculty member, J. Stanley Bagnall, who himself had graduated from Dalhousie in 1921.

The introduction of government grants as well as private donations and gifts from the Kellogg Foundation enabled the dental school to expand dramatically throughout the 1950s, including the number of full-time faculty, the creation of a school of dental hygiene, and the building of the current Dentistry Building at the corner of Robie Street and University Avenue. By 1967 there were 15 full-time academic staff and 31 part-time faculty members, supported by 20 administrative and technical personnel.

In 1969 the faculty, which, since its beginnings, had operated as a single administrative department, established four departments: Oral Biology; Oral Medicine and Surgery; Restorative Dentistry; and Paediatric and Community Dentistry, with independent department heads or chairs. Today the faculty comprises the School of Dental Hygiene and the departments of Dental Clinical Sciences, Applied Oral Sciences and Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences, each made up of its own internal divisions.

The School of Health and Human Performance was established in 1966 as the School of Physical Education in response to the need for PE teachers in Nova Scotia. The program was situated in the Faculty of Health Professions and the first class graduated with their Bachelor of Physical Education in 1970. A Health Education major and a Human Movement option were introduced in the early 1970s; in 1977 a Bachelor of Recreation program began and the first student with a BSc (Health Education) graduated. After Dalplex was completed in 1979, the School moved to Stairs House and a year later Athletics and Recreational Services separated from the School of Physical Education.

In 1984 a five-year Bachelor of Physical Education/Bachelor of Education integrated program started, and in 1986 a BSc (Kinesiology) was created. The graduate programs expanded to include three separate degrees: MA (Health Education), MSc (Kinesiology), and MA (Leisure Studies).

When teacher training was dropped at Dalhousie in 1993, the school was renamed the School of Health and Human Performance. By 2004 the BSc (Health Education) was renamed BSc (Health Promotion), a new stream in Research and Policy was introduced, the Community Health Promotion stream was strengthened, and an Honours degree in Health Promotion began.

Dalhousie's School of Nursing was opened in 1949 in response to the need for post-graduate education for hospital-trained registered nurses as well as nurse educators and administrators across the Maritimes. A Red Cross-sponsored course in public health nursing for graduate nurses was initiated in 1920 (after the Halifax Explosion), but applicants and university support had waned by the middle of the decade. However, the Registered Nurses Association of Nova Scotia (RNANS) persisted in their attempts to persuade Dalhousie to establish a nursing program. They gained the support of the Dean of Medicine, H.C. Grant, and in 1946 the Senate endorsed the plan, but it wasn't until the federal health grant program came into being in 1948 that Dalhousie agreed to provide a course leading to a BSc in nursing in coordination with the hospitals, which would continue to provide clinical training.

Initially the school offered an entry level nursing degree, postgraduate certificates in public health, and nursing education and administration programs for nurses holding a diploma from a hospital-based program. In 1961 the School of Nursing and the College of Pharmacy were both folded into the new Faculty of Health Sciences. In response to a Royal Commission on Health Services in the early sixties, the School developed an Outpost Nursing program, designed to train nurses to work in remote areas, primarily in northern Canadian Aboriginal communities where they were no resident physicians.

A Masters program was established in the mid-seventies as diploma programs were beginning to be phased out and the program began a restructuring process. Currently the School offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN), a Masters of Nursing (MN), a Masters of Science in Nursing (MScN) and a Doctor of Nursing (PhD). Students can receive their degree at either the Halifax or Yarmouth site. The School has also teamed up with the Nunavut Arctic College, allowing residents of Nunavut to enrol in a BScN and receive their degree from Dal.

In 1958 a committee appointed by the Faculty of Medicine submitted a report to Senate outlining the benefits of establishing a course in physiotherapy and occupational therapy at Dalhousie. Subsequently, the Maritime provincial health departments approved of the idea in principle, but saw no urgency in establishing a program, especially given the lack of space and funding in place. Later they determined that separate courses in physiotherapy and occupational therapy were preferable to a combined program.

When the School of Physiotherapy did open in 1963 with a two-year diploma program, it had two full-time faculty members and fifteen students, whose classes were held in the gymnasium of Camp Hill Hospital and in borrowed Medical School classrooms in the Forrest Building. In 1976 the program expanded to offer a BSc Physiotherapy, and the diploma program was terminated at the end of the 1976-77 academic year. In 1984 the Forrest Building was completely refurbished to accommodate the School of Physiotherapy and other Health Professions programs.

In 2010 certification standards began to require a master degree in physiotherapy; accordingly, the BSc program was phased out with the last class being admitted in 2004. The MSc Physiotherapy introduced in 1995 was a research-based programme designed for licensed physiotherapists. In 2006 the MSc Physiotherapy entry to practice program was introduced as a full-time course offered over a continuous 26-month period.

The Maritime School of Social Work was incorporated in April 1941 as an independent school in response to a long recognized need for professionally educated social workers in the region. In the early years classes were taught by a cadre of volunteers drawn from various related professions under the supervision of the school’s first director, Samuel Henry Prince. Professor of Sociology at Dalhousie and the University of King’s College, Prince created the school’s official emblem—a lighthouse emanating rays of light—a symbol of what he called “the epitome of the two-fold character of all social service: prevention and rescue.”

In 1944 Phyllis Burns became the school’s first full-time employee; she was appointed as Assistant Director and Registrar and was responsible for teaching classes in child and family welfare. In 1949 Lawrence T. Hancock was appointed as the first regular Director of the School, a position he held until 1973. It was during his tenure that the school amalgamated with Dalhousie University in 1969 and received accreditation in both Canada and the United States.

Initially falling under the auspices of the Faculty of Administration, the Maritime School of Social Work is currently one of eight schools and a college grouped within the university's Faculty of Health. The political, social, cultural and economic conditions of the region continue to give direction to the school's teaching; specifically, its degree and certificate programs were designed to meet the needs of the region's Mi'kmaq population. It has maintained an affirmative action admissions program since the mid-1970s and makes special efforts to accommodate the diversity of its student population.

In the early 1980s the school added a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree program, while the Masters program (MSW) was reorganized into a one-year course of study for BSW graduates. With the advent of the BSW program, an off-site program was developed to reach students in Sydney, Saint John and Charlottetown. Since 2001 the school has offered distance delivery to students across Canada via the Internet. It also provides a continuing education program for practising professions, including workshops and certificate courses in the practice of social work.

Between 1891-1902 the Dalhousie calendars sporadically listed a two-year course in “Subjects Bearing on Commerce,” along with the suggestion that it be supplemented by practical training at a business college during summer vacations. Commerce then disappeared from the Dalhousie curriculum for two decades, until the university received a gift of $60,000 to endow a chair in business studies. Bishop Carleton Hunt was appointed the first William Black Professor of Commerce in 1921 and courses were offered leading to a Bachelor of Commerce degree. Following several years of staffing challenges, in 1930 James MacDonald replaced Hunt and was appointed the inaugural head of a Department of Commerce.

The School of Business Administration replaced the Department of Commerce on 1 July 1976, a year after the establishment of the Faculty of Administrative Studies, which was an initiative designed to bring together business and public administration under one umbrella, and also included the schools of library services and social work. The BCom became a four-year program and a Centre for International Business Studies was created. In 2012 the school was renamed the Rowe School of Business after Kenneth C. Rowe in recognition of his business leadership and his transformative gift to Dalhousie’s business program. The school is among the five percent of business schools around the world accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

The School for Information Management was established in 1969 as the School of Library Service, and it awarded its first Master of Library Service (MLS) degrees in May 1971. Originally administered by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the school became affiliated with the Faculty of Administrative Studies in 1975, which became the Faculty of Management Studies in 1984, and later simply the Faculty of Management.

Between 1979-1985 the library services curriculum was subject to ongoing revision, and in 1987 the school was renamed the School of Library and Information Studies. In 2005 it changed names again and became the School of Information Management, moving out of its longtime home on the third floor of the Killam Library to new digs in the Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building. It continued to offer a Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree, which in 2019 became a Master of Information (MI). In 2008 the school launched a graduate program for mid-career professionals leading to a Master of Information Management (MIM). The school has been continuously accredited by the American Library Association (ALA) since 1971.

The School of Public Administration was established on 1 July 1975, the same date as the new Faculty of Administrative Studies opened. However, the public administration tradition at Dalhousie goes back to 1936, when it became the first university in Canada to offer classes in public policy and public management. Between 1938-1949 the Faculty of Graduate Studies awarded 13 Master of Public Administration (MPA) degrees to students through Dalhousie's Institute of Public Affairs. This graduate program fell dormant after 1951 and, in an effort to revive a degree course in public administration, in 1969 three programs were launched designed to meet the needs of practising and prospective civil servants, including the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program. These were administered by the Department of Political Science, with decisions and structures shared with the Department of Commerce.

The school continues to provide foundational training in all aspects of public management and policy making to foster the development of future public sector leaders. Its Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Administration – Management (MPA/M) programs are accredited by the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA).

Dalhousie Medical School is an internationally-recognized faculty in undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education. The only medical school in the Maritime provinces, it is closely affiliated with the provincial healthcare systems in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and is affiliated with over one hundred teaching sites, including nine teaching hospitals.

The Dalhousie College Act, ratified in 1863, stipulated the establishment of a medical faculty; with the support of the premier and the provincially-funded Halifax Hospital, the Faculty of Medicine opened in 1868, half a century after the university's founding, and the fifth medical school in Canada, preceded by McGill (1842), Queens (1854), Laval (1823) and Toronto (1843).

The initial class of 14 students was taught by a volunteer faculty of Halifax physicians under the leadership of Dr. Alexander P. Reid. Primary subjects only were offered, and students transferred to McGill, Harvard or New York to complete their training; by 1870 a full program was available and in 1872 the first class graduated from Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine. In 1873 financial difficulties forced the school’s closure and two years later the independent Halifax Medical College was formed, with Dr. Reid as president. After an ambiguous affiliation with the college, in 1889 Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine was re-established, with the Halifax Medical College remaining as the teaching body while the Faculty of Medicine took over the role of examining body.

With the support of the Carnegie Foundation, the medical school was reorganized; in 1911 the Halifax Medical School was fully reintegrated into the university, with a full-time pre-clinical teaching staff and strict entrance requirements. In the early 1920s further grants from the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations enabled the construction of the Dalhousie Public Health Clinic and the Medical Sciences Building, as well as the expansion of the Pathology Institute. In 1925 the school obtained an A1 accreditation from the American Medical Association.

Financial challenges throughout the 1930s and 1940s were alleviated by contributions from the provincial governments of Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and during this period the faculty established the first continuing medical education program in Canada. In 1967 the Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building was completed, housing the W.K. Kellogg Health Sciences Library, several medical science faculties, and facilities for teaching and research.

The first reference to the Department of Medicine in the Dalhousie University calendars is in 1933-1934, where Dr. K.A. MacKenzie is identified as the Head of the Department under "Medicine" and "Clinical Medicine." In previous calendars (since 1870), a medical teaching program was referenced, but there was no indication that it was organized as a department. In 1933, the undergraduate teaching program was at the Victoria General Hospital and interns received medical training there and at the Camp Hill Hospital and the Halifax Infirmary. After Dr. MacKenzie retired in 1945, he was succeeded by Dr. C.W. Holland (1945-1952), and then by a committee consisting of Dr. Charles W. Beckwith, Dr. Robert M. MacDonald, and Dr. Lea C. Stevens (1952-1956). In 1956, Dr. Robert Clark Dickson was appointed Head of the Department and stayed in this position until his retirement in 1974.

The Department of Medicine currently consists of 15 divisions: Cardiology, Clinical Dermatology and Cutaneous Science, Digestive Care and Endoscopy, Endocrinology and Metabolism, General Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Hematology, Infectious Diseases, Medical Oncology, Nephrology, Neurology, Palliative Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Resiprology, and Rheumatology.

The first reference to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Dalhousie University calendars is in 1923-1924, where Dr. H.B. Atlee is identified as the Head of the Department. In previous calendars, Obstetrics and Gynaecology is listed as a subdivision of courses offered by the Faculty of Medicine, but there was no indication that it was organized as a department. Obstetrics first appears as a series of lectures offered by the Faculty of Medicine in 1868, with William J. Almon and Alexander G. Hattie lecturing.

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology currently has seven divisions: Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Gynaecology-Oncology, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Perinatal Epidemiology Research, and Uro-Gynaecology. The department is located in the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia and various Nova Scotia Health Authority sites throughout the province.

The first reference to the Department of Pediatrics in the Dalhousie University calendars is in 1943-1944, where Dr. G.B. Wiswell is identified as the Head of the Department. In previous calendars (since 1911), Pediatrics is listed as a subdivision of courses offered by the Faculty of Medicine, but there was no indication that it was organized as a department.

The Department of Pediatrics currently has 16 specialty clinical divisions and two clinical services: Allergy, Cardiology, Developmental Pediatrics, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology and Nutrition, General Pediatric Medicine, Hematology/ Oncology, Immunology, Infectious Diseases, IWK Community Pediatrics, Medical Genetics, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Nephrology, Neurology, Respirology, Rheumatology, Suspected Trauma and Abuse Response Team (START), Pediatric Palliative Care, Atlantic Research Centre, and Perinatal Epidemiology Research Unit.

The Department of Surgery at Dalhousie University is part of the Faculty of Medicine. The department has nine divisions: Cardiac Surgery, General Surgery, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Plastic Surgery, Pediatric General Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, and Vascular Surgery.

The first reference to the Department of Medicine in the Dalhousie University calendars is in 1923-1924, where Dr. E.V. Hogan is identified as the Head of the Department under "Surgery" and "Clinical Surgery." In previous calendars (starting in 1870), surgery is listed as a subdivision of courses offered by the Faculty of Medicine, but there was no indication that it was organized as a department.

Dalhousie Med IT is the current name of what was formerly Dalhousie Medical Computing and Media Services (MCMS). In 2004, MCMS changed its name to Med IT. MedIT is a unit of the Faculty of Medicine Dean's Office. MedIT provides technology support to Dalhousie Medical School students, residents, faculty and administrators at over 100 sites across the Maritimes. The unit provides a range of services, including computing support, instructional support, videoconferencing support, and video and audio production services.

In 1989, a central unit known as Dalhousie Imaging was established. Dalhousie Imaging’s original location was in the Dentistry Building, on the Carleton Campus. In 1992, Dalhousie Imaging became part of the Audio Visual Division of the Faculty of Medicine. As of 2007, Dalhousie Imaging was known as Graphics / Imaging, and was a part of Med IT Computing and Media Services.

The Faculty of Science was established 1 July 1988, composed of science departments within the former Faculty of Arts and Science. The restructuring of the Faculty began in 1986 with the establishment of a committee to consider its future direction. The Smith Report, drafted in 1987 by Rowland Smith, McCulloch Professor of English and Acting Dean of Arts and Science, recommended the division of Arts and Science, which was followed by a faculty-wide referendum resulting in marginal favour of the decision.

Historically, a Department of Science was first established in connection with the Faculty of Arts in 1878. In 1880 it became the Faculty of Science, reorganized in 1891 as the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science. By 1906, that faculty had been divided and the Department of Pure Science united with the Faculty of Arts to become the Faculty of Arts and Science, a title which lasted until the administrative division in 1988. The Faculty of Applied Science became the first (short-lived) Faculty of Engineering, discontinued after the 1909 opening of the Nova Scotia Technical College.

Dal Science is currently Dalhousie University's largest faculty, with eight departments offering 19 undergraduate degree programs and 10 programs leading to graduate degrees.

The teaching of chemistry at Dalhousie College was introduced in 1842 by Professor James MacIntosh, although the chemistry department dates from 1863 with the appointment of the first chair, Professor George Lawson, who taught chemistry and botany at Dalhousie for 32 years. Ebenezer MacKay, who graduated in 1886 with first-class honours in experimental physics and chemistry, returned to Dalhousie in 1896 with a PhD from Johns Hopkins University to become the second professor of chemistry following Lawson's death.

The first postgraduate chemistry degree was conferred on James Forrest in 1871, and 11 more Dalhousie BA graduates received MA degrees between 1871 and 1934. In 1904, the first Master of Science degree was awarded to W.H. Ross, but research in chemistry did not flourish at Dalhousie until the arrival of Carl C. Coffin in 1930. When the Department of Chemistry received approval for a PhD program in 1960, the number of accepted MSc theses numbered only 62 after more than a half century. Dalhousie's first PhD in chemistry was granted to St. John H. Blakeley in 1964. Since then, some 500 alumni have received MSc and PhD degrees from the Chemistry Department, a number that increases by about 15 each year. Today the department's graduate program is the largest east of Montreal and the only PhD chemistry graduate program in Nova Scotia.

Natural philosophy (physics) was on the curriculum of the "first" Dalhousie College in 1838, and when the college reopened in 1863 as a university, Thomas McCulloch, Jr. was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy. After his premature death in 1865, it was a decade before another such appointment was made. In 1876 J. Gordon MacGregor was appointed Lecturer in Natural Philosophy and taught classes in experimental physics and mathematical physics, while Charles MacDonald taught hydrostatics, optics and astronomy. In 1879 MacGregor became the first George Munro Chair of Physics. One of the first female faculty members hired at Dalhousie was Merle Colpitt, who started as a physics demonstrator during World War One, was promoted to an instructor in 1918, and retired in 1926, a year after she married H.L. Bronson, who had been appointed first head of the newly named Physics Department in 1922.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the department offered a general BSc, a BSc with Honours in Physics, and a BSc in Engineering Physics. In the 1980s, Engineering Physics moved from Dalhousie and a Diploma in Meteorology (DMet) was added. In the 1990s, the Honours Co-op program was instituted. The design, organization, and instruction of undergraduate teaching laboratories, as well as a Physics Resource Centre for first-year students, was enhanced by the work of senior instructors, including Mr. F.M. Fyfe (1974-2001) and Mr. W. P. Zukauskas (1982-2008).

J.H.L. Johnstone was the department's first graduate student, earning an MSc in Physics in 1914, joining the department as a faculty member in 1920, and appointed Head and Munro Professor in 1945. The first woman to receive a MSc was Elizabeth Torrey in 1930. The PhD program in Physics was initiated in 1961 and the first recipient of a PhD in Physics was Dr. Peter Gacii in 1966. The first woman to receive a PhD in Physics was Dr. Nahomi Fujiki of Japan, whose degree was awarded in 1989.

The Dalhousie University Meteorology program was established ins 1984. Administered by the Physics Department, it offers a Diploma in Meteorology (DMet) in conjunction with a BSc in Physics. In 1989, the Atmospheric Sciences program was established in conjunction with AES and NSERC and run jointly between Dalhousie's Departments of Physics and Oceanography. In 2001 the program was absorbed into the physics department, whose name changed to the Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science.