Access is at the top of the government's list of three key orientations in the Quebec Policy on universities, published in 2000. The objectives are to: "ensure that the economic obstacles to access to higher education are reduced to a minimum; ensure grographical access to university education, particularly through the presence of the university of Quebec throughout Quebec and the development of distance education; encourage students to remain in university, particularly by emphasizing support for undergraduates; and, at all levels of higher education, but particularly in graduate studies (master's and doctoral programs) facilitate the integration of students into research and teaching (MEQ, 2000, P.17)"
Many fiscal strategies of Higher education in Quebec aimed at promoting access: tuition-free college education; allocation of a specific amount for the implementation of the school success plans to be integrated with the Cegeps' strategic plans; university funding based on the number of students enrolled; regulation of university tuition fees; loans and bursaries program; and university funding partly based on the number of degrees awarded. Others were more specific: tax deductions for students or their parents, special funding for the Tele-Universite and universities in outlying areas, and support programs for members of Aboriginal communities and for integration of the disabled.
College
Higher education in Québec is a two step process, starting with a college program before being able to continue on at the university level. Students can pursue their higher education by obtaining a College Education Diploma (or Diploma of College Studies (French) Diplôme d'Études Collégiale/DEC). Two types of Diplomas exist, a general education diploma, and a vocational education diploma. A general education diploma is required for admittance to universities in Québec. Both public and private colleges exist side by side and have the same diploma granting privileges.
Public colleges are known either by their unofficial English name of General and Vocation Colleges, or their official French acronym of CEGEPs ((French) Collège d'enseignement général et professionel, word for word translated as "College of General and Vocational Education"). Private colleges are simply called colleges. Although only public colleges can legally be called CEGEPs, most refer to all Québec colleges, public and private, as CEGEPs.
Private Colleges
Quebec has over 20 private colleges that fulfill the same educational requirements as the public CEGEPs, many are specialised institutions with some offering programs that are exclusively vocational.
Public colleges
The 50 or so public general and vocational colleges, or CEGEPs, are governed, in addition to the post-secondary education laws, by separate and specific laws. Each is governed by a board of directors made up of students, faculty, and members of the community. CEGEP institutions are polyvalent offering both pre-university and technical programs. The association with the various religious interests was replaced with a secular and public approach with the intention of increasing access for all social groups. By developing a single structure, it allowed for equality of educational opportunity. Students apply to regional admission services, not to individual CEGEPs. The exceptions to this are Dawson College and Champlain Regional College. There are three regions: Quebec City (Service régional d'admission au collégial de Québec - SRACQ), Metropolitan Montreal (Service régional d'admission du Montréal métropolitain - SRAM), and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (Service régional d'admission des cégeps du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean - SRASL). English-language CEGEPs are located in Montreal (Dawson College, Vanier College, and John Abbott College), Montérégie (Champlain College Saint-Lambert), the Eastern Townships (Champlain College Lennoxville), and Quebec City (Champlain College St. Lawrence). In addition, the Administrative Offices of Champlain Regional College are located in Sherbrooke, though this is not a location where pedagogy occurs.
There are two aims of CEGEPs.The first aim of CEGEP is to encompass the role of both the classical colleges and the existing technical schools and institute. They were also to harmonize the Quebec system with other European and North American systems that had twelve or thirteen years of schooling before university. Another important aim of CEGEP is to make post-secondary education more accessible in Quebec, as well as to provide proper academic preparation for university. Because the public CEGEP has little or no tuition fees and most of the CEGEP colleges are taught in French, CEGEP provides a solid foundation of high accessibility of Quebec's higher education.
Universities
Since the 1960s, the higher education system in Quebec reacted to an increasing population by offering expanded education access in more regions. Universities in Quebec are actively reducing or eliminating disparities between men and women, metropolitan and rural and French and English. According to Henchey and Burgess, "Quebec is clearly moving in the direction of equality access, especially for French women; however, gaps still remain for other language groups, poor and the isolated."
There are transfer programs available for secondary school grads from outside the province; however, applicants are required to meet entrance requirements as specified by the individual university. Applicants are required to demonstrate proficiency in the language of instruction used at the institution.
The University of Quebec (UQ)
The University of Quebec is a unique educational system in the province, as it was originally modeled after the state run universities found in California and New York State. The UQ system was a product of the Quiet Revolution, and it was created by the Quebec National Assembly who enacted the "University of Quebec Act" in 1968. According to Magnuson (1980), "The University of Quebec was intended to extend higher education to throughout Quebec in response to expanding enrolments allowing accessible to students in rural communities." The mission of the University of Quebec is to facilitate the access to university education, to contribute to the scientific development of Quebec and to assist in regional development. In 2007, students had access to adult and university education in seven regions of Quebec through one of the UQ's ten French language institutions. Each campus of the University of Quebec is a legally independent entity, which allows for increased autonomy.
The Faculty of Medicine had increased residency capacity sixty percent since 2003 largely due to international medical graduates (IMG's).
Télé-université
Main article: Télé-université
TÉLUQ, or Télé-université, is a distance learning school at the Université du Québec founded in 1972. In addition to several undergraduate programs, including four bachelor's degrees, TELUQ offers two master's degree programs and one PhD program. Overall, TÉLUQ offers about 400 distance learning courses, including 100 graduate courses. TÉLUQ has about 70 professors and a budget of over $50 millions. Though its head office is in Quebec City, about two thirds of its professors are in its Montreal offices.