After two years marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, international students returned to Canada at the start of the 2022 academic year. Among them, some 17,500 French students according to figures from Campus France. Favorite destination of these young French people: Montreal. Personalized support, low tuition fees, high-level universities… the reasons for this enthusiasm for the great Quebec metropolis are not lacking, explains Magda Fusaro, rector of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
Since 2020, foreign students had deserted Montreal. Are they back at your university?
We are witnessing this return to normal. Better, we have never received so many international students: 5,000 today are registered with us, including 2,100 young French people, or, concerning the latter, almost the level before the pandemic. The difference with the period before Covid-19 is that these students are no longer content to spend a few months with us, as many had done until then within the framework of bilateral exchange programs, they now wish to enroll in complete study cycles.
How do you explain this enthusiasm for Montreal?
The power of attractiveness of Montreal and Quebec cannot be denied, in fact. This is undoubtedly due to the active recruitment policy that we conduct in France and to the very good “word-of-mouth” maintained by our former graduates on social networks.
But it is above all our efforts in terms of integration that make the difference. Contrary to what happens in some universities – I will not mention any names [rires] – where students are sometimes on their own, we have set up very personalized support programs. In particular, we provide them with advice on immigration, even if this responsibility falls to the federal level – directly to the Canadian authorities, therefore, and not to the Quebec authorities. There are now four counselors within the university who help eligible students to untangle this legal web.
We also support them in their student life in general, from a financial, psychological or academic point of view. We know that these young people who leave their country are going through an important transition, and we are particularly attentive to this. Finally, beyond the quality of education provided at UQAM, the accessibility of professors to their students remains a decisive asset.
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