Université du Québec en Outaouais
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| Established | 1981 |
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| Type | public |
| Rector | Jean Vaillancourt |
| Staff | 175 teachers & 350+ part-time lecturers |
| Undergraduates | 75 programs |
| Postgraduates | 31 programs |
| Location | Gatineau, Quebec, Quebec, Canada |
| Campus | Alexandre-Taché & Lucien-Brault (Gatineau), Mont-Laurier, Maniwaki & Saint-Jérôme |
| Website | http://www.uqo.ca |
The Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) is a branch of the Université du Québec in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It also has branches in Maniwaki, Mont-Laurier and Saint-Jérôme.
[edit] Brief history
The current university was inaugurated in 1981 during the government of René Lévesque's Parti Quebecois government although university programs in the region were existing since 1971 (known as the Services universitaires dans l'Outaouais (SUO).[1]
Formerly known as Université du Québec à Hull (UQAH), the name change was made after the 2002 merger that amalgamated the cities of Hull, Gatineau, Aylmer, Masson-Angers and Buckingham into the new city of Gatineau. The new name reflects the Outaouais administrative region in which the university is based.
Each year, about 6 000 students attend courses at the UQO. While this number is one of the lowest in the Université du Québec network, the number keeps on climbing gradually increasing the need for additional courses, programs and resources. There is also about 175 regular teachers, but there are many additional part-time lecturers that gives courses too. [2]
Over the past 25 years since its debut, the UQO awarded a total of over about 27 0000 diplomas [3] and is one of the main contributors to the development of skilled workers in the region along with the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, La Cité Collégiale, Algonquin College and the CEGEP de l'Outaouais.
[edit] Hours of courses
Generally, there are from Monday to Friday four segments of classes. The first goes from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., the second from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., the third from 3:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. and the last from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. However, some courses may occur at different hours. There are few classes during the weekends - most of them are condensed courses that occurs during a few weekends only (some from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.)
Generally, the University is accessible 24 hours a day, especially during the later weeks of a semester as students try to complete their multiple projects or other works or to prepare for the end-of-semester exams that generally occurs during the final week.
Fall semesters starts in early-September and ends in late-December. Winter semesters starts in early-January and ends in late-April. Summer semesters depends on the courses as some are condensed ones that starts in early-May and ends a few weeks after. Some courses may last until July (some late-July). During the summer months, there are a lot fewer courses due to the much-lower demand.
[edit] Faculties
The Gatineau branch of the UQO has two campuses. The first campus (named Alexandre-Taché) is located on Boulevard Alexandre-Taché. This campus houses the faculties of social sciences, psychology, translation (language), social work, education, educational psychology and health sciences. The second campus (called Lucien-Brault) is located just a few minutes away from the Alexandre-Taché campus, just off Boulevard Saint-Joseph. It houses the faculties of business administration, computer science, accountancy, arts, design and comic strip and industrial relations. In total as of 2006, the UQO offers about 75 programs, including 31 post-graduate ones under 12 faculties [4]. For example, the social sciences programs includes communication, political sciences, international and regional development and history.
Though UQO is a francophone university, a number of its masters-level programs in business administration and in project management are offered both in French and in English.
[edit] Expansion projects
In 2005, a new language technology research building was built near the Tache campus and will be used starting the Fall of 2006.
On September 7, 2006, Quebec Education Minister Jean-Marc Fournier gave a total of 14 million dollars to the UQO for the construction of a new four-story environmental-friendly building on the southwest corner of the Alexandre-Tache campus. Being the first of six to eight proposed new buildings, this section is slated for completion for 2008. Also its current library will have a major expansion. [5]
On October 31, 2006, the UQO announced it will open a new permanent campus in spring 2007 in Saint-Jerome in the Laurentians and will have courses in educational psychology, education and social work as well as master's degree program in health science. The city of Saint-Jerome invested 1.5 million dollars for the project that could attract close to 1 000 students in total. [6]
There have been the possibility of merging the two campuses into an expended super-campus along Boulevard Alexandre-Tache, right behind the nearby cemetery towards the Boulevard Saint-Joseph intersection, however it is many years away and it is just a possibility.
[edit] Services and sports facilities
The UQO offers 200 housing units that is located right beside the Tache campus. They are exclusively for UQO services and there is a child daycare centre where students can drop their kids during their courses. Although numerous apartment buildings in the vicinity are also used by them.
Both campuses have a cafeteria, a library and computer rooms. The Tache campus has a large swimming pool and a weight-lifting room. The Brault campus has a basketball court. Both campuses also have a bar. The Tache campus bar is called Le Tonik while the one at the Brault campus is called L'Elixir.
There are no official university sports team that participates in any university sport league, although there have been possibilities for a soccer team in the future.
[edit] Services from log-in accounts
Each student has an account (called Symbiose) that gives access to e-mail, their schedules, their results, the list of courses needed or done, their payment fees and many more. WebCT is a program where students can have access to notes giving by teachers, test results, the course schedule or work or reading required during the semester.
Moreover, a student can also, when requested at the library, get another account, that gives him or her access (or borrow) quickly to thousands and thousands of documents in several research directorys, including newspaper articles, books, audio documents or scientific magazines. When not available at the UQO, they have the possibility to order them, even if they are worldwide.
[edit] UQO Foundation
This foundation was created in order to collect funds in order to improve the university's infrastructure and to meet the demand for the increasingly student population from year after year.
The funds are sometimes coming from students who are optionally paying a top-off cost during their semester inscription. Generally, the optional fee is 5$ per student and a great number of them did donate that amount. On their website people can donate various amount by filling up a form. The UQO also collects funds from various events organized throughout the year.
In 2006, the UQO will try to collect a total of 10 million dollars. [7]
[edit] Student associations
The main student association of the University is called the AGE-UQO (called l'Association Générale des Etudiant(es) de l'Université du Québec en Outaouais (General Student Association). There are also smaller associations which includes only members from a particular faculty such the AEMSS (social sciences) as well as the AEMP (psychology).
[edit] Radio station
Reel-Radio, a community university radio like Carleton University's CKCU-FM only airs at the UQO, but the station is in the process of becoming a new radio station for the FM brand. The process is under examination by the CRTC and Reel-Radio may start to air in the FM brand starting in the fall of 2007.
[edit] 2005 student strike
During the 2005 Quebec student strike students of the UQO surprisingly joined the movement for about three weeks starting on March 14 and returned to class during the first week of April. They were among the 200 000 students that started the movement in late-February, after the Quebec government cut $103 million in bursary funds to transformed them into loans. Many experts, students, journalists and even UQO staff members were not expecting the university to be in favour of a strike movement. Some of the UQO students did participate in the massive demonstration held on March 16 in Montreal. There were also some occasionnal protests along with fellow college students in front of the offices of Quebec MPP's Benoit Pelletier and Roch Cholette.
Students from the Alexandre-Taché campus were more in favour of the strike then those at the Lucien-Brault campus and those at the latter one did express some disagreements and frustrations about the strike which they say was voted by a minority of the 6 000 or so students in total not to mention that they were affected in 2004 by a strike by part-time lecturers. After voting three more times to extend the strike it ended in the beginning of April after the government and the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) members agreed to a tentative agreement. The UQO students voted massively in favor of the deal and thus finished the rest of the winter semester without any other disruptions.
[edit] Cam-Puce student promotion
Starting in the Fall 2006 semester, the UQO and the Société de transport de l'Outaouais had launch a pilot project in which the Cam-Puce promotion which was giving each student registered to it a rebate equivalent to a free month for each semester, has now increased its rebate to 75% the full cost for four monthly passes. This was to encourage students from the UQO to use more the public transit to get to the University instead of driving to it and pay expensive cost for parking. The STO hopes to have 150 students registered to this promotion. The STO did add a cross-town route so residents from the Gatineau sector (Les Promenades de l'Outaouais) would have fewer transfers and a faster trip to the university. However, service is limited to rush-hour only and no service during the 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. nor during the weekends where there are some courses (although rarely during Saturday and Sunday).
[edit] STO service to the university
STO service is provided by:
Rush-Hour Route 20 : Serves at the corner of Montcalm and St-Joseph closer to the Lucien-Brault campus. Serves the Freeman Park and Ride, the Casino du Lac Leamy and the downtown area.
Regular Route 21 : Same as above but 7 days a week.
Rush-Hour Routes 25-26 : Serves the Alexandre-Taché campus. Serves Le Plateau residential area.
Rush hour route 29 : Same as above but serves Manoir des Trembles area.
Regular route 35 : Same as Route 21. Serves areas of Lac-des-Fees and Parc-de-la Montagne and the Hull CEGEP.
Regular Route 36-37 : Serves St-Joseph Boulevard near the two campuses. Serves the Mont-Bleu and St-Joseph areas.
Week-only regular Route 38 : Same as Routes 21 and 35, serves most of St-Joseph Boulevard to Freeman Park And Ride.
Regular Route 39 : Serves the Tache campus. Travels through several areas of the city included Manoir des Trembles, Le Plateau, the Hull Hospital, the St-Joseph Boulevard shopping district, the Freeman Park And Ride and some residential areas of the Gatineau sector. Ends at Les Promenades de l'Outaouais.
Regular Routes 42 and 43 Serves the Alexandre-Taché campus. These routes serves various areas of the Aylmer sector. Route 42 serves the northern areas of Aylmer and route 43 serves more the western and southern sections.
Rush hour routes 44, 45, 46, 50 & 55 : Same as above.
Week-only regular route 57 : Same as previous two. Serves generally during the rush-hour, but there is a midday trip to ensure faster trips from the Gatineau sector in between the first and second block of courses. Serves from downtown Aylmer to the Promenades via downtown Gatineau (some trips ends/starts at Rivermead Park And Ride).
[edit] Possible service by the O-Train
Although, it is still numerous years away, it is possible that the O-Train may be extended to Gatineau via the Prince of Wales Bridge and a train track that is located just a few blocks away from both campuses. This would help students coming from Ottawa to have a faster commute to the university.
If the two campuses in Gatineau merges in the future, the O-Train would pass right beside the eastern edge of it.
[edit] External link
| Quebec universities | |
|---|---|
| Université du Québec |
Abitibi-Témiscamingue | Chicoutimi | Montréal | Outaouais | Rimouski | Trois-Rivières | ENAP | ETS | INRS | TELUQ |
| Other |
Bishop’s | Concordia | Laval | McGill | Montréal | Sherbrooke |
