In Quebec, more anglophones are choosing French universities
As an anglophone Montrealer who attended English schools throughout her academic career and rated her French fluency as merely “OK,” Serena Trifiro did not consider enrolling at the Université de Montréal to obtain her law degree to be her first choice.
After passing the notoriously difficult Quebec bar exam on her first try and quickly finding work in her field, however, she has come to see the move as a minor godsend.
“At the end of the day, I’m so happy it happened,” she said from her office at the Colby Monet law firm on McGill College Ave. in downtown Montreal. “It wasn’t intentional, but I can’t stress enough how grateful I am that it worked out that way, because I honestly don’t think I would have been as prepared for (a) the bar and (b) my career in Montreal as an anglophone.”
Trifiro is not alone. She is among a growing cohort of English students in the province who are opting to attend francophone universities in order to improve their French, study in the field of their choice and maximize their chances of finding work and staying in the province. They are being enticed as well by French universities that are actively recruiting English students to bolster their numbers and improve their diversity in a global marketplace where fluency in multiple languages is seen as a commodity.
A study released this summer by the Office de la langue française found Quebec students whose mother tongue is English are choosing to study at French universities in greater numbers. In 2002, just 5.9 per cent of the Quebec-born students who listed English as their mother tongue opted to attend a French university. By 2014, that number had risen to 9.5 per cent.