The Université de l’Ontario français (abbreviated as UOF; ) is a

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. The university campus is situated in the East Bayfront neighbourhood of

downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main city centre of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the nor ...

, near the

Toronto waterfront The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the city of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans 46 kilometres between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River (Ontario), Rouge River in the east. History L ...

. The university is the first stand-alone

francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

university opened in the province, having been incorporated by the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

in April 2018. The institution offered its first academic certificate program in September 2019, and accepted its first cohort of full-time undergraduate students in 2021.

History

Efforts to establish a Francophone university in Central and Southwestern Ontario date back to the 1970s and the demands gained political traction in the 2010s with several

Franco-Ontarian Franco-Ontarians ( or if female, sometimes known as ''Ontarois'' and ''Ontaroises'') are Francophone Canadians that reside in the province of Ontario. Most are French Canadians from Ontario. In 2021, according to the Government of Ontario, ther ...

groups, including the

Francophone Assembly of Ontario The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

, releasing a report that recommended the creation of a Francophone university within that region on 3 October 2014. A

private member's bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in wh ...

to establish a Francophone university was later introduced in the

on 26 May 2015. However, the bill failed to pass as the legislature was prorogued. While the legislature was prorogued, a report released by the Advisory Committee on French-language Post-secondary Education in Central and Southwestern Ontario noted that post-secondary Francophone education was insufficient in central and southwestern Ontario, and recommended establishing a Francophone university within Greater Toronto to help rectify the issue. On 22 September 2016, a provincial planning committee was created to help establish the institution, chaired by Dyane Adam, the former federal Commissioner of Official Languages, and made up of members from

-based universities including

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District in downtown Toronto, although i ...

and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

; the president of the provincial French-language public broadcaster TFO; and members from Franco-Ontarian organizations. The legislation establishing the institution, the ''Université de l’Ontario français Act, 2017'', received royal assent on 14 December 2017, and formally went into effect on 9 April 2018 at the same time as the appointment of the university's first board of governors. Normand Labrie was appointed by the board of governors as the university's interim president on 1 July 2018 and served until 30 June 2019. He was succeeded by Professor André Roy who was appointed president in August 2020. In February 2021, Roy resigned for personal reasons and the university's two vice-presidents at the time, Denis Berthiaume and Edith Dumont, served as the university's interim co-presidents until July 2021. Following the 2018 Ontario general election, the newly formed Progressive Conservative government announced plans to cancel funding for the establishment of the institution. The question of funding became a major political issue for the new government among the province's Franco-Ontarian residents and it resonated with francophones across the country. Franco-Ontarian Member of Provincial Parliament Amanda Simard

crossed the floor In some parliamentary systems (e.g., in Canada and the United Kingdom), politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a political party different from the one they were initially elected under. I ...

from the Progressive Conservatives, eventually joining the Liberal party, citing the decision as part of the reason for her move. However, in September 2019, the governments of Ontario and Canada announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding, which would see both governments provide C$126 million to fund the institution over the following eight years. The university offered its first academic program in September 2019, a graduate-level higher education

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

program for members of the teaching faculty at Collège La Cité. The university's first graduate certificates were issued for those who completed the program. In January 2021, it was announced the university had only received 19 applicants from Ontario secondary school students for admission into its Fall 2021 cohort, much lower than the expected 200 applicants. There were a total of 151 full-time undergraduate students enrolled at the university when classes began in September 2021. Enrolment rates has increased since its opening year, with the university seeing a growth of over 160 per cent from 2021 to 2022 and an additional 20 per cent increase from 2022 to 2023. In 2023, there were 233 students at the university, with nearly one-third of them enrolled in the university's Bachelor of Education program. In its first two years, most students were international students. For the 2023-24 academic year, about 50 per cent of students will be from Canada.

Campus

The Université de l'Ontario français is situated in

, near the shoreline of

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

. The university campus is located at 9 Lower Jarvis Street, at the base of a high-rise in the East Bayfront neighbourhood of downtown Toronto. The university leases of space within the building.

Administration

The bicameral system of the university's governance consists of two governing bodies: the Board of Governors and the Senate, both of which are established in the ''Université de l'Ontario français Act, 2017''. The board of governors is responsible for governing and managing the university. The Board is made up of up to 13 external members (appointed by the Board and by Ontario's Lieutenant Governor in Council) and 9 internal members from the university's administration, faculty, and student body. The senate is responsible for the university's academic and education policy, including standards for admission and qualifications for degrees, diplomas, and certificates issued by the university. The university's president and vice-chancellor serve as the university's chief executive officer. Pierre Ouellette was appointed by the board of governors as president in June 2021 and took office on 7 July 2021. The position was previously held by André Roy, who served as the university's president from August 2020 to February 2021. Denis Berthiaume and Edith Dumont served as interim co-presidents from Roy's departure to Ouellette's appointment. On 20 October 2021, the board of governors appointed Paul Rouleau as

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

and titular head of the university.

Academics

French is used as the primary language of instruction. The institution is the first stand-alone Francophone university to open in Ontario. As French is the instructional language of the university, prospective students are required to have either taken three years of French language studies in secondary school or pass a French language proficiency test. In November 2022, the university offered four Bachelor of Social Science degree programs. The university launched its Bachelor of Education program in January 2023.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ontario francais, Universite de l' 2018 establishments in Ontario Universities and colleges established in 2018 French-language universities and colleges in Ontario Universities and colleges in Toronto Universities in Ontario Franco-Ontarian history