A legal battle testifies to the difficulties experienced by women who study part-time while having a job and raising children: about fifteen students from the University of Montreal (UdeM), mostly students, are contesting in Superior Court a rule change that restricts their possibilities to obtain a bachelor’s degree.
These part-time students are opposed to an administrative shift that has tightened the means to obtain a baccalaureate by accumulating three certificates. They are enrolled in the Faculty of Continuing Education at UdeM, which has become the institution’s second largest with 14,000 students.
This faculty offers 31 certificates (in law, health, management, communication, early childhood, etc., which can be done in one year) to students who are generally looking to improve themselves after launching their careers: 80% work while in school, 77% are female, and the average age is 34, according to the UdeM website.
“It surprises us that the University is leading this battle [restreignant l’accès à un diplôme] », Says Me Marie-Claude St-Amant, one of the lawyers for the students in this case.
She does not understand the relentlessness of UdeM not to award a baccalaureate to these women, most of whom have accumulated the 90 credits required for this undergraduate degree. For these students, the bachelor’s degree is essential to obtaining a promotion, a career change or the pursuit of master’s studies.
Quality of diplomas first
In a document filed in Superior Court, the University of Montreal indicates that in 2014 it tightened the regulations governing bachelor’s degrees obtained by accumulating certificates “to ensure the quality of the diplomas and so that the knowledge acquired is always up to date”.
UdeM now requires that the three certificates have been obtained in less than 10 years. Applications for the baccalaureate must be made no later than 24 months after the last diploma was awarded. A certain number of credits must have been obtained at the University of Montreal, HEC Montreal or Polytechnique.
“The cumulative baccalaureate has never been a program a student can enroll in. The regulation provides that a student who meets the required criteria may combine several diplomas or certificates and be eligible to obtain a bachelor’s degree by accumulation. This is not a right, the student must apply for it at the end of schooling, ”specifies UdeM in its defense.
Marie-Claire Forté, a 43-year-old mother, is one of those who demanded more flexibility from UdeM in recognizing her studies. This artist teaches dance as a lecturer. She obtained three certificates (in translation and in writing) between the years 2002 and 2017 as a precaution, due to the precariousness of the work in her field.
She planned to obtain a baccalaureate by having her 90 credits recognized, but the change in UdeM’s regulations screwed up her plans. “All my colleagues have a master’s degree, but without a bachelor’s degree, I cannot do a master’s! It’s not serious, ”she laments.