An article from Duty of Friday, March 24 presents me as a “controversial” candidate in the race for the rectorship of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). Let me answer. Such a race is an important meeting with supporters on both sides. Tempers flare. It’s normal.
Being a rector cannot be improvised. To be rector of UQAM even less. The challenges awaiting UQAM are significant. The revitalization of the Latin Quarter is an area where UQAM must play a central role since it has expertise in its departments covering the many issues surrounding the decline of the neighborhood. I was the only candidate to mention it in my application letter dated February 8th. Since then, all the candidates have recognized the importance of this issue.
But that’s not the only challenge. A much bigger challenge for UQAM concerns its attractiveness compared to other universities on the island of Montreal. The deregulation of tuition fees for foreign students has had the effect of impoverishing UQAM compared to neighboring universities. UQAM has chosen to remain a French-speaking university. However, a majority of French-speaking foreign students benefit from an exemption from deregulated tuition fees. This is the case, in particular, of the French and Belgians who are subject to the rights of Canadian or Quebec students, depending on the level of study.
Concordia University, which in 2018 was similar in size to UQAM, saw its annual revenue increase by about $50 million as a result of deregulation alone. For UQAM, the effect was only approximately 3 million. Year after year, a funding gap is growing between UQAM and Concordia, which can offer better support to its students, better infrastructures, etc. Even HEC has chosen to offer an MBA in downtown Montreal in a unilingual English version to benefit from increased income.
Added to this is a perverse effect of the current mode of financing which allows a French-speaking foreign student, for example Cameroonian, to study in the regions in several fields without paying the deregulated fees. He will pay about $20,000 if he enrolls at UQAM, compared to $5,000 if he enrolls at the Université de Sherbrooke or Université Laval, which makes recruiting Francophones even more difficult to UQAM.
The government of Quebec must be able to count on a strong and attractive UQAM in its francization strategy. It’s in Montreal that French is declining, it’s in Montreal that you have to invest to attract new Quebecers and it’s at UQAM that you have to do it. UQAM must be the gateway to Quebec for the most original Francophone and Francophile brains.
To do this, it must be given the means to be attractive and correct the funding gaps that have been created over the years. UQAM is more than ever the French-speaking university in the heart of Montreal. Let us recognize this particular mission of francization, so important for Quebec.
UQAM’s finances are fragile and undermined by many years of underfunding. It needs a strong and experienced rector who is ready from day one to champion it with gusto. I have this experience as a rector and I have never hesitated to defend the community that trusted me, even at the risk of sometimes putting myself in a difficult situation. For me, it’s showing leadership.
My supporters are numerous in Quebec and abroad. Among these, many professors from UQAM, where I was dean of the School of Management Sciences until December 2017. But also foreign personalities, such as Finn Kydland, Nobel Prize 2004, several foreign rectors and many professors from the University of Luxembourg who testify to my heritage as rector of this University for five years, until December 2022. Gilbert Massard, director of medical education, writes of me: “He has been for our university community, but also for our country, a GREAT rector. »
I would also like to be for UQAM.