I believe the statistics you refer to affect us. We would like to see how that trend could be reversed. A number of actions have to be taken at several different levels. To begin with, we want to establish very close links with primary and secondary schools, in order to show them that it is possible to continue to study in French at university. In minority language families, children are often told they should study in English to be sure they will secure a job afterwards. But we tell them they should continue to study in French, in order to retain their language proficiency. Also, they will then be bilingual when they complete their education.
We do not impose language requirements on most of our students, except in those programs where bilingualism is mandatory. And we would like there to be more of these programs. At the present time, we are asking each of the faculties to prepare a list of all the programs where being bilingual, when you complete the program, provides real value added for students. We will be looking at what can be done to foster increased bilingualism among our students.
In 2000, a study showed that 51% of our students were already bilingual. That is probably the highest percentage of all the universities in Canada. So, we are ahead of the others, but we would also like to see bilingualism increased, without it being imposed. As a result, we are introducing incentives, so that students see that it is to their benefit—value added—and therefore decide to maintain or improve their proficiency in the other official language.