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9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ: The heart of a college 'town'

Published: 15 September 2005

Facts and figures about Canada's leading university

From orientation events on campus to study groups in bustling neighbourhood coffee shops, the signs are all around that school is back in session. The suitcases are unpacked and the books cracked open as 17,000 international students return to one of North America's biggest college "towns" — Montreal. With four universities and several colleges, this cosmopolitan urban centre of over three million people is the place to be.

For many of these students the destination of choice is 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ. Indeed, more than 6,000 international scholars from 150 countries, one-third of whom hail from the U.S., have registered at 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ. Why? Because 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ is Canada's best-known university and home to 32,000 scholars at the graduate and undergraduate levels. 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ is also Canada's leading medical/doctoral, research-intensive university. It is renowned for the highest standards and quality of its faculty, teaching and research programs. The University provides dynamic learning environments at its downtown campus at the foot of a mountain and its Macdonald Campus on the shores of the St. Lawrence River. Both campuses provide a blend of English and French joie de vivre that can only be found in Quebec.

Please read on to discover what makes 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ so attractive to international students. Media wishing to write about 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ are welcome to call Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins, associate director of the 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ Relations Office, at 514-398-6754 or 514-398-1076. To learn more about Montreal, please consult the website.

A first-rate, global university

9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ is consistently ranked among the world's top public research universities. It recruits the very best students and has produced more than 125 Rhodes Scholars — more than any other Canadian university. And with 21 faculties and professional schools offering graduate and undergraduate programs, students can excel in virtually any academic discipline.

9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's programs in biotechnology, environmental studies, music, medicine and law, to name just a few, are leaders in their fields. Graduates of the University are sought after and recruited by some of the top organizations in the U.S. and around the world.

The Faculty of Music is among the top ten in the world — a category that includes the Juilliard School of Music in New York. The Princeton Review ranks 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ alongside Harvard, and reports that "9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ is as tough as it comes in Canadian higher education... competition from applications around the world is intense." And 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's programs aren't only competitive, they're distinctive. The new combined BA&Sc program allowing students to study in both the arts and the sciences has been flooded with applicants after only a year in existence.

9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ in the world

9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ is by any measure an international university. 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's professors are leaders in their fields who have been recruited from around the world, including many Americans who have chosen the University. Students come from 150 countries. Of 32,500 students, 17 percent of our 22,000 undergraduates and almost 20 percent of our 7,800 graduate students come from outside Canada. About one-quarter of students have a mother tongue other than English or French — a good reason why 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ receives high marks in the Princeton Review's diversity rankings, including the No. 1 spot for race and class interaction among students.

9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ scholars can study abroad virtually anywhere in the world. The University has bilateral and multilateral agreements linking its students to over 500 other universities around the world. Other students choose to participate in 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's hands-on , available in Barbados, Panama and Africa. Read more at .

9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ research and interests

With over a half billion dollars invested annually in research, it's no surprise that 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ is synonymous with innovation. From the Nobel prize-winning discovery of radon in 1903, to the creation of the world's first artificial cell in 1957 or even the mapping earlier this month of a gene that can be used to halt the growth of breast cancer cells, 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ has a long history of making groundbreaking discoveries. Whether in medicine or neuroscience, astrophysics or the arts, 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ students study in an environment of exploration. 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's world-class network of hospitals operates more than 300 research laboratories and generates close to $100 million in research funds annually.

The reach of 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ research is equally international. Funded by government agencies, financial institutions and private donations, more than 30 new international research projects are launched every year. 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's current portfolio represents over $60 million in investments and boasts projects from Asia to Latin America.

Research centres that complement 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's international research focus include:

Just last year, 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ researchers earned five Killam prizes, and eight were elected to the Royal Society of Canada. Another was honoured with the National Academy of Sciences Award in Neuroscience: the first researcher from outside the U.S. to earn that distinction.

Americans at 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ

9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's largest international population hails from the United States. In spite of a rising Canadian dollar, admission of U.S. students has nearly doubled in the last five years — proving that American students come to 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ for its quality, not its price. Today, more than 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students from the United States call 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ home.

Many of 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's top professors were recruited south of the border and were attracted by Canada's generous public and private research grant programs. Victoria Kaspi, a professor in the Department of Physics, performs groundbreaking studies on pulsars. And psychology professor Daniel Levitin — a former rock musician who has worked with Stevie Wonder — has relocated from Stanford to 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ, where he is doing cutting-edge research on how music affects the brain.

9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ tradition, 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ tomorrow

The institution was born thanks to the foresight of James 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ, an industry titan who bequeathed his 46-acre estate and 10,000 pounds to the "Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning," inaugurated in 1829. Thirty-three of 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's architectural treasures qualify as heritage properties — from the Redpath Museum to the Macdonald Engineering Building.

Proud of its past, 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ marches on towards its future. The University is in a period of academic and physical renewal. Until 2010, 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ will hire 100 new professors every year, drawing talent from universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Cornell. 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ's physical spaces are also being transformed. A new engineering building that is 100 percent dedicated to teaching and a cutting-edge genomics research facility were recently added, while a $70-million music building featuring the world's largest scoring stage opens in fall 2005.

Living and learning in Montreal

The Montreal area has more students per capita than any other city in Canada and is rivalled in North America only by Boston, Mass. Montreal is consistently rated as one of the most liveable cities in the world: it is affordable, safe, diverse and, above all, fun. And while most classes at 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ are given in English, the city and culture that surrounds it is decidedly French. Thanks to the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ) — a province-wide consortium of universities both anglophone and francophone — 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ students can take courses in either language and in nearly any subject at neighbouring universities.

Heart of it all

As a major global cultural and technological centre, Montreal offers students unparalleled opportunities to explore both the arts and the sciences outside the classroom. In summer and winter, spring and fall, Montreal offers a virtually non-stop schedule of festivals and cultural events. And with Toronto, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington all less than a 90-minute flight away, 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ students find it easy to stay connected to the rest of the world.

For more information about 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ, please consult the , or .

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