Creating a Faculty of Health Sciences, building student housing and maintaining its aging buildings before they become “outdated”: the needs of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) are numerous. However, the University’s “underfunding” remains chronic and complicates its ability to realize its ambitions, confides its rector, Stéphane Pallage.
“The projects are there,” said Mr. Pallage on Thursday, while visiting the offices of DutyThe rector, in office since last year, is maintaining his focus on his project to provide UQAM with a Faculty of Health Sciences this year.
“There are areas where UQAM can contribute to advancing society as a whole. One of these areas is health,” said Mr. Pallage. This faculty would offer various programs aimed at training nutritionists, pharmacists and nurses. The institution also hopes to obtain approval from Quebec so that it can also eventually train doctors within its walls, as part of a project overseen by the Université du Québec network, of which UQAM is a part.
“It is not normal that, in a system like Quebec’s, we have to wait several years to have access to a family doctor,” said Stéphane Pallage. “We can do much better.”
The rector is still waiting, however, to receive a favourable reception for this project from Quebec, and consequently essential financial support so that the establishment – which reports an annual shortfall of 50 million dollars – can carry out this project.
“Within the framework of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UQAM, we will also need funding,” acknowledged Mr. Pallage, according to whom this project represents “probably the greatest priority for the development of [son université] in the coming years.”
The rector is not afraid that this project will compete with the new facilities that the Université de Montréal has set up on two floors of a building on Place Dupuis, downtown, where hundreds of medical students have recently been trained. “Our aim is not to do what the Université de Montréal does, but to add things that the Université de Montréal does not do today,” said Mr. Pallage.
Aging buildings
UQAM, which has seen its student population rise again after a decline in recent years, also reports significant housing needs. In this sense, the University is eyeing the Voyageur block site, very close to its campus, where it would like to see hundreds of student housing units built. But, again, in addition to having to obtain approval from the City of Montreal for this project, the institution will also need a financial boost from Quebec, which is not guaranteed.
It is not just for the addition of new buildings that UQAM is reporting financial needs. This is also the case for the maintenance of its current buildings. Due to a new directive from Quebec, the institution will only be able to spend a maximum of $31 million for this purpose this year, whereas the university “thought it could spend between $40 and $50 million this year.”
“It’s a constraint,” Mr. Pallage said with a sigh. “And you know, the buildings aren’t young. They’re my age. Some are over 50 years old. So, they have to be maintained. These are considerable sums that have to be invested, just in maintaining assets.”
Otherwise, if these buildings are not maintained, they risk becoming “obsolete” in the coming years, warns the rector. The latter has not yet decided which projects within his university will have to be postponed because of this spending limit imposed by Quebec, in the name of sound management of public finances.
The University of Montreal indicated for its part, in an email to Dutythat “$50 million in asset maintenance projects are at risk or must be postponed” because of the state’s decision, while McGill and Concordia universities expect to have to put many maintenance projects on hold this year.