“One of the important problems between francophones in Canada is that we don’t know each other,” says Pierre Ouellette, the rector of the UOF, who sees this exchange as a step “to make Canada work better”.
He regrets that Quebecers are sometimes unaware of the existence of francophone minorities living outside their province. Still, they represented nearly a million people in Canada, nearly two-thirds of them in Ontario, according to Statistics Canada.
“I want as many Quebecers as possible to do an internship in another French-speaking region of the country and return to Quebec with a wealth of knowledge.”
Low student mobility in Canada
While student mobility is mind-opening, its sluggish development is still a brake. According to one study, 11% of Canadian students alone have completed an exchange abroad, compared to 33% of the French report by the Global Education Study Group in 2017.
“In Canada, international mobility is relatively low. It’s not like the students in Europe, who almost take it for granted with the Erasmus program,” analyzes Alexandre Jay.
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