Editing Education in Quebec (section)

==Post-secondary education==
Students may pursue post-secondary education after completing compulsory schooling (elementary and secondary) in Quebec. Post-secondary education in Quebec includes two levels: college education and university education. Of note, the term 'post-secondary' in this entry is used specifically within the context of Quebec. Unique to Québec, this level is a bridge between compulsory schooling and university education. At the university level, education is provided by individual universities. These institutions have an education structure tantamount to that found elsewhere in North America.

===Colleges===
{{main|College education in Quebec}}
College education is given by institutions known as Colleges. Both private and public institutions ([[CEGEP|CEGEPs]], which is officially coined in French as ''Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel'') of this type exist within the province.

Unique to Québec, college education serves to bridge compulsory schooling and university education, since it is the only province that requires 11 years of study (instead of 12) to obtain a high school diploma. For admission purposes, [[Canadian provinces]] other than Quebec do not consider completion of grade 11 in Quebec (Sec V)—or, more simply, the secondary diploma of Quebec—to be sufficient for university admission (or admission at other post-secondary institutions). Hence, although some exceptions exist, successful completion of college education in Quebec is generally required to gain qualifications for university admission.

Students who enter college can specialize in a number of different technical or pre-university fields. The term of study is two years for pre-university and three years for most vocational or technical diplomas. Students completing college earn the ''Diplôme d'études collégiales''  sometimes with other designations attached to this title. Of interest, the term CEGEP can only legally be used to describe the state-run post-secondary (post-grade 11) schools, where tuition is free. The 26 private institutions which offer a post-secondary program recognized by the [[Quebec Ministry of Education]] receive a subsidy for each of their 15,000 students, and grant the same diplomas as the public colleges. Unlike the state-run colleges, the private post-secondary schools do not have to combine pre-university and vocational programs in one institution. About half offer pre-university and the other half offer vocational programs.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

Holders of the two-year college diploma still must complete a minimum of three years of university education in order to obtain a bachelor's degree. Under Canadian law, bachelor's degrees from government-accredited universities in Canada are considered equal, whether from Quebec or other provinces. Those unfamiliar with Quebec may wonder if three-year university programs there are therefore equal to four-year university programs in other provinces, or in other countries where four-year first university degree programs are the norm. However, given that college diploma holders are granted up to one year of advanced standing credit at any university, it is clear that this is not the case. What exists in Quebec is simply a different structure of education than in other provinces, which ultimately yields exactly the same total duration of study when years of secondary and post-secondary study are combined.

Graduates of two-year college programs often receive up to one year of advanced standing at universities outside of Quebec, but no more than this. Effectively, the first year of college study is considered equivalent to grade twelve in all other provinces, while the second year is considered to be equal to the freshman university year. Chronologically and legally, this is true and has been in effect for the entire modern era of education in Canada.

===Universities===
{{main|Higher education in Quebec}}
Primary school, secondary school, and college add up to 13 years of pre-university study, one more than other provinces (although part of college study is post-secondary, as evidenced by the treatment of college diplomas in and outside of Quebec). For this reason, most undergraduate [[university]] degrees in Quebec universities are three years in length for Quebec students who have obtained a college diploma.  Universities from outside Quebec have four-year bachelor's degree programs, because secondary study in all provinces outside of Quebec ends with grade 12 (rather than secondary study ending with grade 11 and then being followed by two years of college study, as in Quebec). University education in Quebec is much like in other [[North America]]n jurisdictions. In addition to formerly private institutions, the government of Quebec founded a network of universities in several cities across the province, called the [[Université du Québec]]. All universities in the province have since become public in a similar fashion to other Canadian provinces.

From the standpoint of post-secondary institutions outside of Quebec who may be trying to determine transfer credit, there are essentially two ways in which to interpret the two-year college program, bolstered by local and countrywide legislation. The first option is to remove the first year of college study from consideration, since it is in fact the twelfth year of study overall in Quebec (similar to grade 12), and the laws of the land throughout Canada dictate that a high school diploma from Quebec lacks one additional year in order to be considered the equivalent of a high school diploma elsewhere.  The second option would be to include both years of college study in the evaluation, knowing that the maximum of possible transfer credit/advanced standing is one year at the [[freshman]] level.  This second option is viable if one is uncomfortable with using the chronological separation of year 12 and year 13 as their rationale, especially since college courses are not necessarily all taken in a predetermined chronological order, as the order can vary from student to student.

Quebec subsidizes post-secondary education and controls [[tuition fees]], resulting in low student costs in university education. There are three levels of tuition: Quebec resident (lowest level), Out-of-province Canadian resident (tuition set to average Canadian tuition) and International tuition (highest). The Quebec resident tuition is only available to residents of Quebec, residents of jurisdictions that have bilateral agreements with the Quebec government, and to students enrolled in French literature or Quebec studies programs.

Greater [[Montreal]] has eleven universities, founded over the course of 200 years. In 2015, it had more than 155,000 students (full-time equivalent), or 65% of Quebec's student population.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.montrealinternational.com/en/publications/the-contribution-of-greater-montreal-universities-to-the-quebec-economy/|website=Montreal International|language=en-US|access-date=2017-01-25|title=Market studies & publications}}</ref>