Quebec’s Inter-University Transfer Agreement, or Autorisation d’études hors établissement (IUT-AEHE), is a program that allows students to register for courses throughout the province. An opportunity of this nature is especially valuable in Montreal, the city housing the greatest number of universities in Canada. With McGill and Concordia as an anglophone pair to complement the francophone Université de Montréal and UQÀM, Montreal provides a rich environment for students to take advantage of the IUT-AEHE program and broaden their university experience. However, for the program to take effect, Montreal, the provincial government, and Quebec universities must make it a priority to support it. 

The promise of the IUT program is undermined by tensions between anglophone and francophone universities in Quebec—namely, the multimillion-dollar deficits at McGill and Concordia; but an inflexibility in the systems of these schools’ departments is just as much at fault. Registration in Concordia’s film production department requires enrollment in the BA program, blocking it off entirely from inter-university students. Likewise, many of McGill’s departments follow a similar policy, preventing students from enrolling in certain classes unless enrolled in one of the department’s programs. The rationale is reasonable, as anglophone universities in Quebec face budget cuts, and with them, shrinking staff, resulting in lack of space for visiting students in certain departments. But this restricts an important aspect of university: Experimentation in fields outside one’s discipline. As a university without a fine arts department, the IUT program provides a stellar opportunity for students in McGill’s career-focused programs to dip into studio arts. This requires universities to open up their programs to both students dedicated to studying in these fields and experimenters hoping to dabble in the discipline. In part, the value in belonging to a university is in the services provided. While McGill offers its students well-equipped labs, an extensive library collection, and music practice spaces, it lacks facilities to practice studio arts—something that could potentially compensate for the university’s lack of fine arts programs. Access to the resources to practice ceramics, photography, film, or even glass blowing and metal-working—all found at Concordia—is difficult and expensive to organize individually. 

While most universities cannot provide students this access independently, given diverging administrative priorities when allocating funding—McGill is more interested in funding research than anything else—the IUT program is a step towards the sort of collaboration between universities that allows students to maximally engage with the exploratory nature of university. However, the restrictions imposed by different university departments are an impasse for this crucial inter-university collaboration, and almost nullify its value entirely. Opening programs to other universities would allow students to become more well-rounded and avoid being pigeonholed in one discipline, taking advantage of the window of opportunity that universities ought to provide.

Despite the program’s many virtues, its built-in bureaucratic obstacles—such as the aforementioned registration restrictions—only further complicate a student’s ability to take advantage of its opportunities. A program like this ought to be appropriately advertised to the student body—listed in course registration, for example. Keeping students aware of this program and encouraging participation is crucial for its existence. 

Student participation keeps such programs alive and pushes them to grow; the years at university offer a limited window for the kind of multi-disciplinary immersion that should be central to higher education. Engagement between disciplines and between student bodies is precisely the sort of experience that gives value to university: To walk in many aspects of life. Universities such as McGill must help foster this sort of experimentation.