Manitoba’s only French-language post-secondary institution, the Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface, is no more. The school is now officially the Université de Saint-Boniface, or USB.
Billed as the first of its kind in Western Canada in the early 1800s as a school for boys, to 140 years being called Collège de Saint-Boniface, the institution moved forward in April when the Manitoba government introduced legislation to grant the institution full university status.
Under the new act, USB will continue to operate independently while remaining affiliated with Winnipeg-based University of Manitoba, which it helped found with two other colleges in 1877.
“We’re very proud of our affiliated relationship with the University of Manitoba, but we are ready for the future,” said USB president Raymonde Gagné.
The school’s mission and programs remain unchanged and university-level graduates will continue to receive diplomas from the UofM.
“While USB now has the flexibility to widen its partnership network in promoting post-secondary studies in French and raising its institutional profile, the only change on campus is our new name and new status,” said Gagné.
USB accepts about 1,200 full and part-time students in a wide range of university programs and vocationally-oriented courses and enrolls nearly 5,400 in a continuing education division.