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

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in No ...

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 institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The university campus is situated in the

East Bayfront East Bayfront, or the East Bayfront Precinct, is an emerging neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is currently undergoing a transformation from industrial use to mixed-use as part of Waterfront Toronto's plans to create a residential and ...

neighbourhood of

downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main central business district 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 Str ...

, near the

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

. The university is the first stand-alone

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

university opened in the province, having been incorporated by the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Member of Provincial ...

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 (french: Franco-Ontariens 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 2016, the Government of O ...

groups, including the Francophone Assembly of Ontario, 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 A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two election ...

. 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 The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater ...

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 and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

; 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 Édith Dumont, served as the university's interim co-presidents until July 2021. Following the

2018 Ontario general election The 2018 Ontario general election was held on June 7, 2018, to elect the 124 members of the 42nd Parliament of Ontario. The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, led by Doug Ford, won 76 of the 124 seats in the legislature and formed a maj ...

, 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 resonnated with francophones across the country. Franco-Ontarian Member of Provincial Parliament

Amanda Simard Amanda Simard is the former MPP for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 42nd Parliament of Ontario. Simard was elected in the 2018 provincial election as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of ...

crossed the floor Crossed may refer to: * ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis * ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie * "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead'' S ...

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 La Cité, also called Collège La Cité and previously La Cité collégiale, is the largest French-language college in Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1989 in Ottawa (with a satellite campus in Hawkesbury and a business office in Toronto), it offer ...

. 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.

Campus

Universite de l'Ontario francais front 1

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. The Canada–United States border sp ...

. The university campus is located at 9 Lower Jarvis Street, at the base of a high-rise in the

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 The King-in-Council or the Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it would mean the monarch exercising executive authority, usually in the form of ap ...

) 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 Pierre Ouellette (born 1945) is a science fiction author. He lives in Portland, Oregon. He wrote the science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with im ...

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 Édith 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 ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

and titular head of the university.

Academics

As of September 2022, the university offered four

Bachelor of Social Science The academic undergraduate degree of Bachelor of Social Science (BSS, B.Soc.Sc., or B.Soc.Sci.) requires three to four years of study in the social sciences at an institution of higher education, primarily found in the Commonwealth of Nations. I ...

degree programs based in the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at t ...

and

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of s ...

s. The four programs offered include human plurality, digital cultures, urban environments, and economy & social innovation. 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.

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 43, 38, 40.6, N, 79, 22, 06.9, W, type:edu_region:CA-ON, display=title 2018 establishments in Ontario Educational institutions established in 2018 French-language universities and colleges in Ontario Universities and colleges in Toronto Universities in Ontario Franco-Ontarian history