Economic revitalization, accessibility to studies or competition between institutions? It is a bit of all of this that we observe in the proliferation of satellite university and college campuses in Quebec. Recent unpublished compilations made by The duty show an increasingly significant spread of supply through secondary centres established far from the main campus, which accentuates the bidding war.
The phenomenon is not new, and its main source is not the devitalization of regions or the shortage of labour, but rather the fierce race for customers that universities and CEGEPs — funded by Quebec in proportion to the number of students choosing their establishment — have been engaged in for a long time. Not so long ago, it was said that universities were “cannibalizing” each other. The same can now be said of CEGEPs, which have also taken up tug-of-war.
Our education reporter, Zacharie Goudreault, noted that the number of satellite campuses has increased by 29% over the last decade in the public college network. For 48 CEGEPs, there are now 27 satellite campuses — in 1984, there were only 6. One of the best-known examples, and one whose image is striking, is certainly that of the CEGEP de la Gaspésie et des Îles, in Gaspé, with its Montreal campus, in Ahuntsic, which is separated by some 900 km of road. This CEGEP has three campuses and a national school, which 1,000 students attend, 10% of whom come from outside Canada. The Montreal campus receives mainly foreign students.
Other satellites, however, are being created far from the major centres and their large — and attractive — clientele base. These therefore respond quite directly to a desire to better serve future students in certain MRCs that lack educational services in higher education. A study conducted on behalf of the Fondation pour l’alphabétisation by economist Pierre Langlois reveals that 39 MRCs in Quebec have a so-called “out-of-territory” college offering, located more than 20 km from the place of residence, which discourages many potential students.
This seemingly purely geographical reality has major repercussions on the Quebec economy, the economist believes. Lacking fluid access to college education, these regions have lower levels of literacy, meaning more terminal schooling in 5e secondary education, greater attendance at vocational training and a lower popularity of college and university studies. These delays, which contribute to lower graduation rates in Quebec than elsewhere in Canada, would result in “an unrealized economic potential of around $4.9 billion annually in terms of gross domestic product,” writes Pierre Langlois.
Only from this angle, everything argues for an increase in the college offer in order to promote greater equality of opportunity, thanks to accessibility to studies. This is the anchor point for the creation of the Quebec education network, because this was the main ambition of the Parent report, at the end of the 1960s.
But critics of this proliferation of campuses are worried about a potential drift, where the race for customers would prevail over a political decision truly based on the existence of training deserts. Universities have long since sunk into this race for customers, which effectively contributes to organizational cannibalization, far from the noble desires of accessibility and equal opportunities. Before throwing stones at them, however, let us concede that it is the university funding model — at the head of the pipe — that has accentuated this competition, not to mention the chronic underfunding from which they have suffered for years.
The Institut de la statistique du Québec has documented the significant gaps in access to higher education across Quebec. Next to Montreal, where 50% of 25 to 64 year-olds have a university degree, the Côte-Nord has only 17% of university graduates, Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, 18% and Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Centre-du-Québec, 19%. The idea of offering satellite campuses in areas where nothing is offered therefore maximizes the chances of the population of these regions to access higher education.
But the government’s capacity to financially support new institutions is not infinite and it is up to it to cautiously authorize the construction of new campuses, focusing especially on higher education deserts. Is this still the case? The Ministry of Higher Education unveiled its new university funding policy at the beginning of June, which will clearly favor institutions that perform well in terms of enrollment and graduation in study programs related to sectors of activity experiencing a labor shortage. This opens the door wide to another aspect of competition between universities.