A $5.93 million, five-year grant from the Canadian Heritage ministry, matched by provincial funding of $6.865 million, will expand French language programming at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University.
The grants will help promote bilingualism in Canada by improving post-secondary French language programs in B.C. and increasing the number of qualified core French and French immersion teachers.
There are currently 35,000 students currently enrolled in French immersion programs at the elementary and secondary levels in the province, said SFU president Michael Stevenson.
Among the first initiatives will be a new SFU office of francophone and francophile affairs, which will coordinate and promote new programming developments in both the faculty of arts and the faculty of education.
A new SFU Bachelor of Arts program to be delivered primarily in the French language will commence in September 2004. It will offer majors and extended minors in political science and French, leading students into careers in public administration and community services or into the French module of the faculty of education’s professional development program for teachers.
