Dr. Frank MacKinnon being invited back to the Island in 1949 at the age of 30, he took on the role of principal until he resigned in 1968, amid an effort by government to amalgamate the college with St. Dunstan's University. Sixteen other PWC faculty resigned soon after. Thomas M. Lothian a biology professor became interim principal from 1968 until its dissolution in 1969. PWC held high academic standards for its students and as early as the 1910s, McGill University entered into talks related to integrating PWC as its Atlantic coast counterpart to the University of Victoria, which McGill had also helped to establish and nurture. Master plans had called for quadrupling the size of the PWC Grafton Street campus to encompass most of what is now the eastern end of downtown Charlottetown with the proposed PWC-McGill campus being built along the area bounded by Grafton, Prince, Kent, and Edward Streets in a massive redevelopment of the community. The plans did not come to fruition and by the 1960s, the provincial government 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 their course on the part of 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 the now-former SDU campus. The PWC campus on Grafton Street was taken over by the provincial government and became part of UPEI during the early period of amalgamation. By the early 1970s it was the Charlottetown campus of a new provincial community college named Holland College. References External links Prince of Wales College history - provided by UPEI Defunct universities and colleges in Canada Educational institutions established in 1804 Educational institutions disestablished in 1969 Education in Charlottetown University of Prince Edward Island 1804 establishments in Canada 1969 disestablishments in Prince Edward Island Colleges in Prince Edward Island