The University of Quebec (UQ) must at least “double its reception capacity” to meet its growing housing needs, according to its president, Alexandre Cloutier. A project which requires investments of around 700 million dollars.
Mr. Cloutier presented this morning the UQ brief to the consultations on multi-year immigration planning, in Quebec. If he plans to welcome the reforms made to the “graduates” component of the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ), he also intends to emphasize the importance for international students who attend the network to find a home.
“To ensure their success, as well as to have the capacity to welcome and accommodate them, UQ assesses the needs at 4,000 new rooms for all of its students over the next five years through his network,” Mr. Cloutier wrote to DutyWednesday.
The duty reported this summer that waiting lists for student residences, both in the college network and at university, continue to grow. “The issues are real in Trois-Rivières, in Rimouski, in Chicoutimi. It is important for us to respond to these accessibility issues,” Mr. Cloutier said in an interview on Wednesday. “If we want to welcome foreign students of French in the regions, we have to accommodate them, of course. »
The president of UQ assures that he has started discussions with Quebec “to find a financial model that would allow us to respond to the issues that exist in the University of Quebec network.” “We just got the numbers. So here we present our current situation. Then what we say is that it will be necessary to invest significantly to respond [à nos besoins] “, he said.
The most recent Quebec Infrastructure Program – 2023-2033 – provides for investments of approximately ten million dollars to increase the rental capacity of universities. This is barely a hundredth of UQ’s demands for its network alone.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, assured that the government was working “hard to develop the supply of student housing”. “We are aware of the student housing problems in the region,” his office wrote to Duty. “It’s a collective challenge, the work is not finished, we are in action. »
Fréchette Reform
Mr. Cloutier also took advantage of his visit to Quebec to welcome government reforms regarding the reception of students from abroad. According to him, the fast track to permanent residence established by the Minister of Immigration, Christine Fréchette, for immigrants who master French will result in “encouraging the development of a stronger bond of belonging in communities reception”.
Already, around a third (32%) of UQ students with temporary residence permits “intend [à leur premier trimestre] to stay in Quebec,” according to a survey by the university network.
“By modifying the Graduates component of the PEQ, the government intends in particular to eliminate the conditions on work experience and employment status. […] The removal of these conditions should reduce the exodus of these graduates to other provinces, or even other countries,” we read in the UQ brief tabled in committee on Wednesday.
With Anne-Marie Provost