uOttawa Partnership

Tuesday, 5 August 2014 15:21

City of Woodstock and uOttawa creating satellite campus

WOODSTOCK - The City of Woodstock is partnering with the University of Ottawa to establish a satellite campus offering French and French Immersion programs.

This new partnership proposes to address the French language postsecondary education access gap in Central Southwestern Ontario by offering academic undergraduate and specialized trade programs.

Mayor Pat Sobeski says it's a great opportunity for the City to continue their downtown revitalization.

"Phase One of hopefully a few phases, would be going into the Reg Hall building right across from City Hall. That's where they would get their toes in the water to see if indeed the demand is in this area for this type of French Immersion. We would renovate the building to suit their needs, rent them the facility and that would be their starting point."

Sobeski says there is no time line for the campus to be up and running as the University is still making the submissions to the province.

"The province is still indicating that they are not sure how many will be approved and when they will be approved and again, they still want to make their commitment to balance the budget like they said. Once it's approved, it's up to the province to determine how they are going to fund these and at what pace."

Sobeski says they liked that Woodstock was surrounded by so many cities which would keep the cost of commuting low for students.

"They liked the fact of a downtown campus because of all the amenities that are in the downtown so that's one of the things that was important to them. Bus transportation is already established, recreational facilities for students are relatively close to the downtown."

“As Ontario’s flagship bilingual research-intensive university, we are committed to meeting the needs of Francophone and Francophile wishing to pursue their postsecondary education in French,” said Allan Rock, president of the University of Ottawa.

“We greatly appreciate the vision and commitment of the City of Woodstock. The University of Ottawa looks forward to working in partnership with Woodstock to realize this vision and support Ontario’s Francophone and Francophile communities,” said Allan Rock.

The establishment of a uOttawa satellite campus in Woodstock is subject to approval by the Ontario government.