The University of Montreal (UdeM) is “interested” in Place Dupuis, located in downtown Montreal, where it plans to rent premises for a decade in order to accommodate some of its medical students, including the number is increasing. A prospect coldly received by the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), which fears that this project will be “imposed” on it.
In recent years, the number of students enrolled in the UdeM medicine program, located near Mount Royal, has experienced high growth. 390 students are expected there in 2024, or 35% more than the 288 welcomed within the walls of the establishment in 2019.
“We have an obligation to find spaces to offer training to the cohorts which are already growing,” notes the rector of UdeM, Daniel Jutras, in an interview. This is also a request made by the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), at a time when the government has set itself the target of training 660 more doctors in Quebec by 2026 .
UdeM therefore intends to rent more than 5,500 square meters of premises in a downtown establishment in order to accommodate some of its medical students as close as possible to the University of Montreal Hospital Center (CHUM), in complementarity at the current site of the faculty, indicates Mr. Jutras.
Race against time
Among the coveted sites are premises located in Place Dupuis, a shopping center which is located just opposite Place Émilie-Gamelin, a stone’s throw from UQAM, we learned The duty.
“These spaces are interesting for us because they are near the CHUM in particular, but also the Notre-Dame hospital, which allows first and second year students to be brought closer to these clinical spaces,” explains Mr. Jutras. The latter thus confirms that the establishment has had discussions with the property manager Busac, responsible for Place Dupuis, concerning the possibility of renting premises there to carry out this project.
These spaces are interesting for us because they are near the CHUM in particular, but also the Notre-Dame hospital, which brings first and second year students closer to these clinical spaces.
However, no official decision has yet been taken, since UdeM is awaiting approval from the MSSS and the Ministry of Higher Education, who will have the final say on the choice of the place where some of the future medical students will study. ‘establishment. Currently, “at least four” locations in the city center and surrounding areas are being considered for the realization of this project, including Place Dupuis, notes Mr. Jutras. The latter also hopes that discussions with the government will conclude quickly so that the premises that will be chosen can be redeveloped and are ready to welcome students in time for the start of the fall 2024 academic year. “It takes several months, this work, so we hope for a response very soon,” he continues.
“We will announce our intentions at the appropriate time”, indicates for its part the office of the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, who adds in writing that the universities “are hard at work to adapt their reception capacity, and we are currently analyzing the different solutions proposed to achieve this.”
Daniel Jutras specifies for his part that if a contract is signed for Place Dupuis, “it is likely that it will be for a period of 10 years”.
Concerns
However, the possibility of UdeM building an extension of its medical faculty at Place Dupuis is already raising concerns within UQAM, noted The duty by contacting several of his teachers. It must be said that the establishment has seen its student population decrease by more than 11% since 2019, which is causing it significant financial challenges. In order to help meet these challenges, rector Stéphane Pallage, in office for a little over six months, wishes to create a faculty of health sciences at UQAM within two years which will eventually include a medicine program. .
Teachers contacted by The duty therefore wonder if UdeM, by wanting to extend its medical faculty to the city center, is not trying to “pull the rug out from under” UQAM. Especially since Daniel Jutras openly opposed two months ago, in an open letter published in The dutyto the health sciences faculty project, they recall.
However, the UdeM project has been the subject of discussions with the Quebec government for “more than 18 months,” says Daniel Jutras. It is therefore not a “response to the proposals that have been made by UQAM to develop its own faculty of health sciences,” he assures.
The president of the UQAM Professors’ Union, Geneviève Hervieux, deplores in an interview that the government is considering granting new funds to a UdeM project after having invested massively in that of the MIL campus. It is time, according to her, that funds were instead intended to “give back to UQAM the means to operate as well as it has been able to do to develop over the last 50 years”.
“If we went to Place Dupuis, I would ask myself questions about the use of public funds,” says Stéphane Pallage. He adds that he hopes that if the UdeM project comes to fruition on this site, UQAM will be a “stakeholder” as part of a collaboration between the two establishments.
“I am very open to collaboration, but don’t impose something on us, work with us,” emphasizes Mr. Pallage. “We need to work on a project that would allow us to join forces in a particular area. Our researchers would be very interested in working with those at UdeM, and perhaps we could design teaching programs together,” he continues.
A request to which the rector of UdeM is favorable. “The hypothesis [selon laquelle] universities are always in competition with each other, I think, which is no longer demonstrable in reality,” concludes Daniel Jutras.