|
|
| Motto: Real education for the real world |
| Founded |
1974, with the merger of two institutions, Loyola College (1896) and Sir George Williams University (1926)
|
| School type |
Public |
| President |
Frederick Lowy
|
| Location |
Montreal, Quebec
|
| Enrollment |
25,417 undergrad, 4,444 grad |
| Campus surroundings |
Urban
|
| Campus size |
40 acres (160,000 m²) Loyola Campus |
| Sports teams |
Stingers |
| Mascot |
Buzz |
|
Concordia University's downtown (Sir George Williams) campus: the Hall building (at left) and the library.
|
This article is about Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. For other universities named Concordia, see Concordia.
Concordia University is a large urban university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university has two campuses, set approximately 7 km apart: Sir George Williams Campus is in the downtown core of Montreal (at Guy-Concordia metro station), and Loyola Campus is in the residential west-end district of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. They are connected by free shuttle-bus service for students, faculty and staff. Concordia is one of Montreal's two universities that teach in English, with McGill University; it is officially bilingual.
History
The university traces its academic roots back to the early 20th century, with the development of the Jesuit-run Loyola College and the YMCA-based Sir George Williams University.
Sir George Williams University
The Montreal YMCA was established in 1851. From its early years, it offered evening classes to allow working people in the English-speaking community to pursue their education while working during the day. Concordia has continued this tradition by offering many night classes with summer night classes as well as the traditional fall and winter sessions. In 1926, the education program was organized as Sir George Williams College, named after George Williams, founder of the YMCA. It received a university charter from the provincial government in 1948. The first SGWU building was built in 1956, although the university continued to hold classes in the YMCA building until the construction of the Hall Building in 1966. The university gained international attention in 1969, when a group of students occupied the computer lab (see George Williams Computer Riot).
Loyola College
Loyola College was founded in 1896 as an English-language program of the Jesuit Collège Sainte-Marie (since merged into UQAM). It was originally located at the Sacred Heart Convent in downtown Montreal. The college moved into the present west-end campus in 1916. Although founded as a collège classique (the forerunners of Quebec's CEGEPs), Loyola began granting university degrees through Laval University as early as 1906. By 1940, collège classique programs were gone and Loyola became a four-year university, although it never obtained its own charter, granting its degrees through Laval or, after 1920, the University of Montreal.
Concordia University
The merger of Loyola and SGWU was recommended in 1969 by a Royal Commission, as part of the secularisation of Quebec's educational system (see Quiet Revolution). The two schools were merged in 1974 under the name of Concordia University, taking the name from the motto of the city of Montreal, Concordia salus (meaning 'well-being through harmony'). [1]
Programs
Concordia has more than 180 undergraduate programs are divided into four Faculties: Arts and Science, Engineering and Computer Science, Fine Arts, and the John Molson School of Business. Students are enrolled in one of these Faculties, but they may take courses from any of the others as part of their studies. Many programs also offer a 'co-operative' component, whereby students get work experience while they study.
In addition, the School of Graduate Studies offers more than 70 programs leading to Master's and doctoral degrees, as well as a variety of graduate diplomas and certificates for professionals seeking to upgrade their knowledge and skills.
Students enter the university in September, or in some cases, in January or May. An undergraduate degree normally takes three or four years to complete, a Master's takes from a year-and-a-half to three, and a Ph.D. is at least four years long. Certificates and diplomas usually take no longer than a year and a half to complete.
Athletics
Concordia University's athletic teams are called the Concordia Stingers. They compete with other schools in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, and more specifically, in the Quebec Student Sport Federation and the Quebec Interuniversity Football Conference. The university has ten varsity teams. In the fall, teams compete in football, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's rugby football and sport wrestling. There are female and male wrestlers on the team from year to year, however they compete as one team. In the winter, teams compete in men's and women's ice hockey and men's and women's basketball. There is also a baseball team, which competes at the club level against other schools in Quebec, but the baseball team receives no money from the university.
The school last won a national championship in 1999, when the women's hockey team beat the University of Alberta in the final game of the season.
Noted alumni
Sir George Williams
Loyola
Concordia
See also
External link
Last updated: 05-07-2005 11:57:36
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
