Located in the heart of Quebec's
historic capital city, Université Laval is one
of Canada's leading universities. Among the top ten Canadian
universities in terms of research, it has received more than
230 million dollars in external funds in year 2004 for research
and international cooperation.
Université Laval traces its origins back to 1663, when
Monseigneur François de Laval, the first bishop of New
France, founded the Séminaire de Québec with the
authorization of the King of France, Louis XIV. A Royal Charter
creating the Université Laval was granted to the Séminaire
de Québec by Queen Victoria in 1852. A few years later,
in 1878, the Université Laval opened a second campus in
Montreal to offer higher education teaching in this city . Université
Laval's "Montreal branch" became the Université
de Montréal in 1920. As Canada's first university, Université
Laval was the very first institution in North America to offer
higher education in French. Hence, it is the source of all French-speaking
higher education on our continent.
Université Laval has been a pioneer in program assessment
and strategic planning, and remains at the vanguard of the internationalization
of teaching and research. As of fall 2004, Université
Laval has over 350
programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels,
and 38 000 students. 23% of those are at the graduate level.
Finally, Université Laval attracts yearly more than 2
000 foreign students, and has close to 1 000 out-of-province
Canadian students.
