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UQAM's financial fiasco is a major problem for Montreal The university is key to educating our local workforce HENRY AUBIN The Gazette Tuesday, June 10, 2008 I'd argue that the No. 1 short-term problem that the Montreal area faces today is the financial fiasco at the Université du Québec à Montréal. (Long-term problems such as decaying infrastructure and adapting the region to climate change are another story.) It's easy to overlook UQAM's importance. Its not the most prestigious of the four universities that are the four pillars of the region's knowledge economy. Yet UQAM's role in forming an educated local workforce is arguably greater than that of the most internationally renowned school, McGill. That's because a greater share - far greater - of its graduates actually remain in the metropolitan area and make their careers here. UQAM's real-estate expansion has rung up a debt costing $50,000 a day in interest. It could reach half a billion dollars by 2012. To reduce costs, the university cut its operating budget by 10 per cent, hiked student fees and announced the elimination of 30 specialized programs (each of which typically contains four courses). In all, it's cutting $41 million per year for five years. But this is hardly enough. To be sure, the Charest government would never let the university downsize drastically. UQAM is too valuable economically. The political cost to any government would be too great. But there has been profound damage to the institution's reputation - which is ironic, given that the aim of the expansion, centred on the construction of two glittering new downtown campuses, was in large part to lend UQAM prestige. More important, however, will be the damage to the calibre of the education itself. How many professors will not be hired? How many more courses will be dropped? How many potential students will decide against going to university because of spiralling fees and slipping quality? The crisis raises two questions. The first: Who ought to pay for whatever is needed to bring the university back to health? The bill could come to about $300 million. Should the university pay? Or should Quebec taxpayers pick up this hefty tab? The argument in favour of the university paying for itself would be that it is the author of its misfortune. No one told it to build the science campus (completed between Sherbrooke St. and Place des Arts) and the humanities campus (unfinished at the Voyageur bus terminal). UQAM's new head, Claude Corbo, who has the unenviable job of cleaning up UQAM's finances, made the case last week that Quebec taxpayers should pay. I have deep respect for Corbo's record of public service over the decades, but his argument is weak. He said that since Quebec paid for the Laval métro's cost overruns, it should now pay for UQAM's. That would bolster the idea that planners of public projects can toss prudence to the winds. Indeed, as Quebec's auditor-general showed last week, accountability was dysfunctional at every level. UQAM's head at the time, Roch Denis, kept real-estate details from UQAM's board of governors, the board placed too much trust in Denis, the body that oversees the Université du Québec's six universities across the province was asleep at the switch and so was the person at the top, then-education minister Jean-Marc Fournier. The problem for his successor, Michelle Courchesne, however, is this: If she does the principled thing and makes UQAM pay for its errors, this could further harm the institution's quality. No one wants that. The second question is: How do you change the culture of laxity the is at the root of this project? The UQAM and Laval métro debacle are examples of a trend. Major projects in Montreal tend to elude serious study. McGill and the Université de Montréal wasted years dreaming up grandiose hospitals that, even now that their scale is smaller, keep climbing in cost. Highway 25 and U de M's Outremont campus have never received adequate study. And two big projects of the day, Quartier des spectacles and the private Griffintown mega-project are also avoiding credible scrutiny. I've written about this absence of checks and balances for four years. The void is as glaring as ever. True, the arrival of public-private partnerships (in the case of the hospitals and the highway) could keep taxpayers from getting hit by cost overruns. But PPPs address the management of projects, not their justification. The core problem remains After the Olympic Stadium fiasco, a provincial inquiry headed by the late Judge Albert Malouf urged screening of major projects by independent experts. How many more clinkers must Quebecers endure before politicians accept that common sense? - - - The knowledge economy's four pillars The Université du Québec à Montreal produces the second most diplomas and certificates of Montreal's universities. The figures are from 2006. University Baccalaureat Masters Doctorate Total* Concordia 4,379 1,080 72 5,833 McGill 4,665 1,499 345 7,608 UQAM 4,466 1,542 115 10,303 Univ. de Montréal 5,030 1,433 257 11,286 Source: Ministry of Education *including certificates http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/viewpoints/story.html?id=c694a84a-2719-4a9b-ac0c-b290eb76b092

Top Asian team at global business challenge 31 March 2008 NUS' MBA team beat more than 270 Asian teams to emerge the best in the continent at Cerebration 2008, with DBS as principal sponsor. The Competition is an annual global business challenge organized by the NUS Business School. The team finished second overall among the more than 450 participating teams from 200 business schools worldwide. HEC Montreal team emerged the champion, with the London Business School and McGill University completing the final field of four. Now in its fourth year, the competition gives MBA students a chance to devise global business expansion strategies for participating Singapore companies -- Brewerkz Restaurant and Microbrewery, Expressions International and Qian Hu Corp. Each team had to study its chosen firm and come up with strategies based on the firm’s unique profile and target market. This is the second straight year that the NUS team has finished second in the competition, reflecting the School’s global ranking of the top 100 business schools for its MBA program.

Université McGill, pav. Franscesco Bellini (Montréal) complexe_sciences_vie_u_mcgill.pdf

(Courtesy of The Gazette)

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