More secondary university campuses have emerged in Quebec in the last four years than in the previous 20 years, noted The duty. A situation which demonstrates the growing interest of these establishments in reducing the “barrier” of distance which persists in access to higher education for many Quebecers. Experts are, however, divided on the relevance of the proliferation of these satellite campuses across the province.
When the University of Quebec network was created at the end of the 1960s, one of its primary goals was to make university studies accessible to as many Quebecers as possible. Today, the 17 main campuses of the province’s 18 university establishments – TÉLUQ University being entirely online – are spread across eight regions of Quebec.
Thousands of students from nine regions of the province without a main campus must therefore travel long distances — generally by car — to get to their classes, or even rent an apartment in cities like Montreal, Quebec, Trois-Rivières or Sherbrooke . Obstacles that discourage many, as evidenced by figures published last year by the Institut de la tourisme du Québec (ISQ).
In his Panorama of Quebec regions, the ISQ, which is based on data from the 2021 census, notes that 33% of Quebecers aged 25 to 64 hold a certificate, diploma or university degree. This percentage reaches 50% on the island of Montreal, but drops to 21% in Lanaudière, one of the regions of Quebec where this rate is the lowest — alongside Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine (18 %), Côte-Nord (17%) and Nord-du-Québec (13%).
Residents of regions outside major centers often have to travel long distances or go into exile to pursue university studies. In fact, 45% of baccalaureate graduates in Lanaudière in 2017 had obtained their diploma at the University of Montreal or the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
However, “do you feel like driving two hours a day to study in Montreal after the pandemic, which has accustomed you to staying at home? No,” says the former president of the College Education Evaluation Commission Céline Durand, in reference to Lanaudière students.
“Equalization of opportunities”
In order to provide access to university education in regions far from the city where they initially emerged, universities have, over the years, set up training sites intended to teach a few programs, often in premises rented to CEGEPs. The number of these small service points, however, saw a marked decline between 2008 and 2021, going from 234 in 2010 to 132 in the fall of 2021, data from the Interuniversity Cooperation Office (BCI) show.
In return, around ten secondary campuses, which offer a greater variety of programs, have emerged or been announced since 2020 in several regions of Quebec, noted The duty by contacting all the universities in the province. This is a significant number, considering that barely six secondary campuses were created between 2008 and 2021 (see our interactive tool), as evidenced by BCI data.
“There has been an increase in campuses with a physical location,” notes Professor Pierre Doray, of the Department of Sociology at UQAM. The latter notes that universities are no longer content to rent premises to CEGEPs to serve various regions. Instead, they are opening full-fledged campuses in separate buildings, rented or purpose-built, where a greater variety of programs are generally offered.
“It promoted an equalization of opportunities,” summarizes this specialist in access to post-secondary education.
Luc Bernier, holder of the Jarislowsky Chair in public sector management at the University of Ottawa, points out, however, that many of these secondary campuses do not offer all the services that are generally found in a university, such as a library, a sports center or a laboratory. “There is an impoverishment in the quality of teaching, in my opinion, in these satellite campuses on the other side of the world,” says the professor. I am not convinced that this is the solution to the graduation rate in the region,” continues Mr. Bernier, who wonders if “it is for the good of the university or for the good of the students that we are doing That “.
Crying needs
In Lanaudière, the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR) had been offering courses in CEGEPs in the region for decades. Since 2021, however, it has opened three campuses — in Terrebonne, Joliette and L’Assomption — in order to bring together all its students in the region and to have enough premises to accommodate hundreds more in the coming years and meet growing demand.
“Even if the campus is small, it allows them to have a university identity that [leur] is clean,” notes the rector of UQTR, Christian Blanchette, in reference to students in the region who will no longer have to take their university courses in a CEGEP, but rather in a real campus. “I think that’s important” in order to make university studies attractive for young people in the region, for whom the distance from Montreal universities can represent a “barrier” that is difficult to overcome, illustrates Mr. Blanchette.
For its part, the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) is currently building a campus in Mont-Laurier, where it has been offering courses for around twenty years. However, simply renting premises is no longer sufficient to meet the growing needs of students in this town in the Hautes-Laurentides, explains the rector of UQAT, Vincent Rousson.
“The community adopted us, so we established ourselves gradually. And today, we have reached a moment, in our history in the Hautes-Laurentides, where we needed infrastructure, hence the creation of a campus,” he emphasizes in an interview, while specifying that this project will be partly financed by the government of Quebec. Despite the creation of this campus, UQAT will continue to rent premises in downtown Mont-Laurier as well as on the Saint-Jérôme CEGEP campus, located in this city, “because our student body does not stops growing.”
“Besides, the construction [du campus] “has not even been completed and we are already preparing a phase two expansion in Mont-Laurier,” confides Mr. Rousson.
There are also six pavilions and campuses specialized in the health sector which have taken shape in five regions of Quebec since 2020, shows the analysis of the Duty. The École de Technologie Supérieure, based in Montreal, will spread its activities to Longueuil starting next year, to offer a bachelor’s program in aerospace, while Concordia University opened a specialized campus last year. in the energy transition in Shawinigan, 170 kilometers from its main building.