Université du Québec à Rimouski


The Université du Québec à Rimouski is a public university located in Rimouski, Quebec, Canada with a campus in Lévis.
Since its establishment in 1969, Université du Québec à Rimouski has granted over 50,000 diplomas. In addition to its Lévis and Rimouski campuses, UQAR offers academic training throughout eastern Quebec, including the Chaudière-Appalaches, Gaspésie-Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Haute-Côte-Nord, and Manicouagan. It also has permanent offices in Gaspé and Rivière-du-Loup.
UQAR is part of the Université du Québec network, the largest university network in Canada, with over 100,000 students. UQAR welcomes about 7,000 new students every year, including about 550 foreign students from over 45 countries.
Research at UQAR stands out among universities for its interdisciplinary approach. Marine science, regional development, and nordicity are areas of research excellence that characterize a number of UQAR programs.
The university's athletics teams are known as the Nordet, a French word used to refer to a northeasterly wind.

History

First milestones

Religious and community leaders first proposed establishing a university in Rimouski in the 1930s. By the 1950s, the Seminaire de Rimouski had begun offering postsecondary level courses in partnership with Université Laval. Following the onset of the Quiet Revolution in Québec, postsecondary access expanded in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. The Parent Commission report established that Québec's citizens were entitled to full educational opportunities at all levels. Implementing the report's recommendations necessitated secularizing the province's educational system, which had largely been run by religious organizations. An act creating the Université du Québec was passed by the provincial legislative assembly in 1968. One year later, the Université du Québec à Rimouski opened on the grounds of the former monastery of the Ursulines of Quebec.

2009 fire

During the night of May 14, 2009, at approximately 1:30, the fire alarm system was triggered and reported by the on-duty Rimouski campus security agent while at the same time smoke was spotted by patrolmen from the Sûreté du Québec passing by. The fire resulted in a general alarm for the Rimouski fire department, prompting assistance from the fire departments of Bic and St-Anaclet. By mid-day, the fire was contained and mostly put out. It resulted in the destruction of the main wing's belfry as well as major fire damage to the roof and water damage to the floors below.
The affected wing houses procurement and printing services, student's services, the student's bookstore, the rector's and vice-rectors offices, finances and human resources as well as classes and working spaces of graduate students. The university's geography department uses the classes located on the 5th floor, directly under the fire-damaged part of the building, and the offices located directly under the collapsed belfry are occupied by researchers. Many graduate students are also working on the 5th floor.
The damage was estimated at the time at least $3 million.
campus

The Rimouski campus today

The administrative capital of the Lower St. Lawrence region and a bustling maritime community, Rimouski is also a genuine “student city” that hums with the activities of over 15,000 students every year. The label is no exaggeration when you stop to consider that students represent nearly one in three people living in this town of 50,000.
The Rimouski campus now has 11 pavilions, in addition to student residences. The Rimouski campus also houses the Rimouski Institute of Marine Sciences and the Center for Support for Innovation through Research

Lévis campus

The university opened a second campus in Lévis, in Québec's capital region in 1980. Lévis campus of UQAR has become in 40 years a major pole for the institution. In 2019-2020, the Lévis campus was attended by about 3,000 students.
UQAR offers academic training throughout eastern Quebec, including the Chaudière-Appalaches, Gaspésie-Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Haute-Côte-Nord, and Manicouagan. It also has permanent offices in Gaspé and Rivière-du-Loup.

Programs of study

UQAR offers over 160 undergraduate to doctoral-level training programs in the fields of administration, biology, environmental and bioresource chemistry, regional development, education, ethics, engineering, geography, history, computer science, literature and creative writing, oceanography, psychosociology, accounting, nursing, and social work.
Owing to its privileged geographic location, UQAR enables students to explore and study exceptional natural environments that are a stone’s throw away from the campuses. While maintaining a primary focus on academic achievement, the training programs offered by UQAR stand out for their excellence and distinctive .

Foreign students

UQAR has established more than 70 cooperation and exchange programs with about 15 countries around the world.
Each year, UQAR welcomes about 550 foreign students, blending accents and rhythms from around the world, creating an enriching everyday environment for the university community.

Research

From the onset, UQAR has faced up to the challenges of its natural setting by concentrating on its strengths, namely its environmental resources. This is why marine science, regional development, and nordicity are the three major areas of research at UQAR. These fields are perfectly integrated to meet the challenges of the territory covered by the university. These areas of research excellence bring together a critical mass of renowned researchers. In addition, research in engineering, education, literature, heritage, management science, and health science has been booming in recent years.
The independent firm RE$EARCH Infosource Inc. has repeatedly rated UQAR among the best performing Canadian universities in the field of research. For the 2011 to 2019 period, it was ranked eight time among the top three research universities offering mainly undergraduate courses. Over a ten-year period from 1999 to 2009, UQAR's research funding increased from $3.8 million to $17.4 million.

Research units

From its beginning, Université du Québec à Rimouski has been at the forefront of the study and understanding of the marine environment.
The recognition of marine sciences as an area of excellence has enabled UQAR to develop a sizeable research capacity in the field. Today, UQAR has brought together a remarkably strong group of researchers, whose expertise touch on a vast array of questions in the field of marine sciences.
The Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski enjoys international recognition as the flagship of Quebec research in this field.
UQAR has cutting-edge infrastructure that offers researchers unique research potential. Over the past decade, more than $50M have been invested in infrastructure, including equipment, to support the marine science sector in the Rimouski region, in particular at UQAR-ISMER.
UQAR has a variety of research tools that allow it to position itself as a world leader in the vast field of marine science. In addition to high-performance oceanography instruments and laboratories equipped with the latest technologies, ISMER researchers enjoy two major infrastructures: an oceanography research vessel and an aquaculture station.

Regional development

QAR’s expertise in regional development is anything but a random process. It is the result of a long tradition of reflection and research that goes back several decades. At the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, the Quebec and Canadian governments identified the Lower St. Lawrence and Gaspésie regions as future laboratories for social experimentation in the area of regional development.
UQAR is looking to better grasp the issues and problems facing regions in connection with current economic and societal changes. Researchers associated with this line of research analyze socioterritorial dynamics affecting regions and create tools for development assistance.
Regional development is a primary institutional focus in both basic and applied research, with a number of organized research units. This field of multidisciplinary study meets regional, national, and international concerns.

Nordicity

UQAR is dedicated to the study of the Far North and cold lower latitudes, a field known as “nordicity.” This research area brings together a diversity of researchers with a multidisciplinary interest in northern environments around a number of highly complementary disciplines.
Research at the Biology, Chemistry, and Geography Department is aimed at better understanding the processes of environments in cold climates in order to respond to major conservation and sustainable management challenges. It helps to determine a state of reference for the northern environments and their changing dynamics.
Regional development researchers and students analyze the socioterritorial dynamics in Quebec, including the North, and create development assistance tools. Focus is placed on the effects of development policies on the regional economy, the social acceptability of natural resource exploitation projects, and local community adaptation to climate change.
Health research at UQAR is characterized by a multidisciplinary approach to the study of healthcare in rural areas, including northern regions, both in regards to care and services and to the populations concerned, mainly vulnerable groups.
UQAR’s expertise in engineering is focused in a number of areas related to mechanical and electrical engineering, allowing for the implementation of a range of projects, such as identification and exploitation of wind power energy potential in northern environments, including technological innovation ensuring optimal energy management of the equipment used in resource exploitation.

Honorary doctorates and other distinctions awarded by UQAR

Honorary doctorates

Université du Québec à Rimouski awards honorary doctorates to people who have made a significant contribution to university or in the exercise of their profession or in general by their contribution to society. The University has awarded the following honorary doctorates:
The Université du Québec à Rimouski medal is awarded to people in recognition of their remarkable contribution to the development of a sector related to one of the University's main missions: teaching, research and service to the community. The University awarded the following medals: