The University of Ottawa is the first Canadian post-secondary institution to introduce a program that enables graduates of high-school French immersion programs and francophiles to continue or begin immersion-style studies at the undergraduate level.
Approved by the University’s Senate on May 2, the program allows students to pursue their education in their second language, in whole or in part, right up to their bachelor's degree in the discipline of their choice, in French immersion.
The program also is to be personalized, with its objectives, requirements and accreditation to be tailored and fine-tuned according to each student’s linguistic abilities, in-course progress and linguistic and educational objectives.
“Students enrolled in the program should be able to continue to improve their French-language skills while earning a degree,” said University of Ottawa president Gilles Patry during an address to students taking part in the April 28 French for the Future conference. “The hope is that they will be able to retain those skills for the rest of their lives.”
The program proposal tabled at the May meeting of Senate adds that “the University’s commitment to promote young Anglophones' bilingualism will contribute to the development of programs and services in French for Francophones from Ontario and other parts of the country.”
The University of Ottawa annually attracts more than 450 Ontario high-school immersion program graduates, or about 15 per cent of its first-year class. U of O expects to enrol more than 1,100 anglophone students in its new immersion program between 2006 and 2011.
The new immersion program will fall within the purview of the University’s Official Languages Institute that will function as a home for all students in the French immersion program. In order for a program to offer registration to the immersion stream – and to guarantee that students can progress normally through the various stages of their degree –, all compulsory courses of the honours program and a sufficient number of third- and fourth-year electives will have to be offered in French.
