After a forced shutdown during the pandemic, programs with an international component are resuming. The break will nevertheless have allowed universities to adapt and reflect on their offer. A look at the question with Valérie Amiraux, vice-rector for community and international partnerships at the Université de Montréal.
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
As is the case for other universities, COVID-19 has had a severe impact on international exchanges at the Université de Montréal. “We had to interrupt the outings of our students and stop welcoming foreign students for almost a year and a half,” says Valérie Amiraux.
Despite everything, contact with foreign countries has been maintained thanks to virtual experiences. “We quickly set up courses, summer schools and intensive virtual teaching formats in the training courses that were concerned”, explains the vice-rector. On the other hand, experiments in the research laboratory, internships and periods of investigation in the field have been put on hold.
While University numbers have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, this session marks some return to normal.
It goes up. There is a resumption of international activities in all forms. Exchanges of one or two sessions, summer schools, training outside the walls resume.
Valérie Amiraux, vice-rector for community and international partnerships at the Université de Montréal
The same goes for masters and doctorates which require field trips abroad.
Valérie Amiraux notes, however, that student mobility has resumed much more intensively and quickly in Europe than here. “It is likely that we will reach the pace of 2019 only in a few months,” she said. At that time, the University of Montreal received approximately 1,000 foreign students while between 1,100 and 1,200 of its own left to see the country.
Coping with international tensions
War in Ukraine, violence in Iran, uncertainty in China… Student exchanges are resuming against the backdrop of international tensions, a context that does not worry Valérie Amiraux unduly.
“The tensions existed before the pandemic. They are part of the university reflection on mobility. This is nothing new; there is only special attention to other areas of the world. She adds, however, that for certain countries, the University of Montreal provides individual support to students more closely in the choice of their destination.
“We think about the student’s project. It is an analytical work done jointly with teachers and students. We have no forbidden zone, even if we are obviously extremely attentive to what Global Affairs Canada says and to the reception conditions in the universities where we send our students, ”she underlines.
An offer that “can only get better”
Valérie Amiraux sees the next few years with a glass half full. “I’m quite optimistic. Student mobility is still underdeveloped here, we are lagging behind compared to Europe. »
This is what makes the vice-rector believe that we can only improve international experiences. “It has to be done taking into account the impact on the environment, she insists. It’s not about traveling for three weeks every year. »
For Valérie Amiraux, long-term stays will be recommended in the future. It allows you to “diversify your experiences, improve your training and come into contact with ways of doing things that are not taught in the same way here”.
Funding, which is one of the main obstacles to student travel, will also have to be reviewed, according to her. “We must make an effort to better support students from the first cycle to think of the international as a possibility and to arouse their interest. We must make the international accessible to all our students. »