The government of Quebec will invest $17 million to enable the University of Montreal (UdeM) to develop two floors of a building on Place Dupuis, located downtown, which will accommodate hundreds of medical students from next fall, learned The duty.
Last month, The duty revealed that Place Dupuis was among the sites studied by the University of Montreal to accommodate some of its medical students, whose number has increased rapidly in recent years to meet the expectations of the Quebec government. After several discussions involving the university establishment, the Ministry of Health and Social Services as well as the Ministry of Higher Education, a decision was finally made.
Thus, the government granted a grant of more than $17 million to UdeM to allow it to rent and redevelop the third and fourth floors of the building located at 888, boulevard de Maisonneuve Est, into an extension of the faculty of medicine at the university which will welcome students from the start of the fall 2024 school year. Work will begin next month in this building built in 1962, which is located just above the Berri-UQAM metro station, even close to Place Émilie-Gamelin and the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
Of the sum granted by Quebec, 10 million dollars will allow these spaces to be rented for five years, while 7 million will go to the development of the premises and the equipment of the premises which, we promise, will be at the cutting edge of technology. The lease with the owner of this office building, which has other commercial tenants, is for a period of 10 years, confirms UdeM in an email to Duty.
“With these new premises, we will be able to significantly increase medical admissions and contribute to better access to care for the Quebec population,” indicates the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, in a press release which will be made public this Wednesday.
Since 2019, the cohorts of doctors entering UdeM have jumped by 35%, increasing the pressure on the Roger-Gaudry pavilion, near Mount Royal, as well as on a campus moved to Trois-Rivières by the university. In this context, 630 students conducting their first and second years of preclinical studies of the doctorate in medicine will be welcomed next year in the new 6,200 square meter premises which have been chosen in downtown Montreal, we learned. The duty.
This expansion will make the UdeM medical faculty the largest in the country “in terms of number of students” served, indicated in an interview the dean of this faculty, Patrick Cossette. For the next school year, this faculty will have 1,639 medical students, specifies the university by email.
A location of choice
Mr. Cossette specifies that this building was chosen among others analyzed due, in particular, to the size of the premises available there and its ideal location near a metro station and several hospital establishments, in particular the Hospital Center of the University of Montreal (CHUM). This was the building whose rental and redevelopment met the “budgetary framework” imposed by the Treasury Board, continues the dean of the faculty of medicine.
“Not all office buildings are ready to accommodate that many students at a time. So, there was a real estate analysis, there were different sites that were considered. Then, finally, it was the one at 888 de Maisonneuve which was selected,” explains Patrick Cossette.
Not all office buildings are prepared to accommodate this many students at a time. So, there was a real estate analysis, there were different sites that were considered. Then, finally, it was the one at 888 de Maisonneuve which was selected.
UdeM will also take advantage of the start of the 2024 school year to offer a “renewed” program in medicine that will take into account contemporary societal issues, such as climate health and the rise in popularity of artificial intelligence. The university also wishes to make greater use of groups of different sizes in order to test “varied educational approaches”, it indicates in its press release, provided to Duty under embargo.
“The content will be very similar, but it is above all the teaching method that will evolve,” explains Patrick Cossette, who does not hide his enthusiasm about the expansion of the UdeM medical faculty. “This will allow us to continue to fulfill our mission of training the next generation, the future doctors of Quebec. »
Students from these new premises will also continue to go from time to time to the Roger-Gaudry pavilion, particularly as part of activities involving its simulation center, indicates the university.
Cold reception at UQAM
Within UQAM, which is working on a project for a faculty of health sciences, the prospect of UdeM moving to Place Dupuis raised several questions last month, both from professors and of rector Stéphane Pallage. “If we went to Place Dupuis, I would ask myself questions about the use of public funds,” he said in an interview at Duty. The rector added that he hoped that if the UdeM project came to fruition on this site, UQAM would be a “stakeholder” as part of a collaboration between the two establishments.
“There can be collaboration, if we want, but in the premises we are talking about, they will be occupied for the needs of the faculty of medicine of the University of Montreal. There is nothing else that can fit there, if only for reasons of space,” affirms Patrick Cossette. The latter also notes that the rental of these premises in the city center comes after two years of discussions between the university and the government of Quebec.
“It’s a long-term project, which began well before we heard the rumor that UQAM wanted to develop its own medicine program,” he emphasizes. Thus, “it is absolutely not in reaction to this project”.