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La Cité collégiale English: The Collegial City; branded La Cité since November 12, 2013) is the largest French-language college in Ontario. Created in 1989, in Ottawa (with a satellite campus in Hawkesbury and a business office in Toronto) it offers more than 90 programs to some 5000 full-time students from Ontario, other parts of Canada and foreign countries.
In 2011, La Cité ranked first among the 24 Ontario colleges in terms of student satisfaction, graduate employment rate, usefulness of knowledge and skills acquired, overall quality of learning experiences, and overall quality of services, according to the results of an annual survey by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. The college ranked second in terms of overall quality of the facilities.
In 2012 and 2013, La Cité was also recognized through Mediacorp Canada Inc.’s annual study ranking Canada’s top employers as one of the National Capital Region’s top 25 employers, while being also named among the 200 most recommended employers in the country.
History
The Government of Ontario created a network of colleges in 1967. Certain colleges, including Algonquin College, in Ottawa, and St. Lawrence College, in Cornwall, offer French-language programs. As early as the 1970s, the possibility of creating a 23rd – French-language – college in Ontario was put forth. In 1987, a working group was given the mandate, by the Government of Ontario, of considering the appropriateness of designating certain colleges as organisations offering services in French under Bill 8, the Ontario law on French-language services. The group concluded that the idea of creating a French college should be given priority over the college designation plan. The Minister of Colleges and Universities and Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs agreed. In August 1988, the Ontario Cabinet approved, in principle, the creation of a French-language college with an exclusive mandate to deliver services in French. In 1989, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities and the Department of the Secretary of State of Canada arrived at a cost-sharing agreement relating to the establishment of such a college in Eastern Ontario, a college bearing the official name « Collège d’arts appliqués et de technologie La Cité ».
La Cité opened its doors to 2300 students in September 1990, in temporary facilities on St-Laurent Blvd, in Ottawa. In 1993, the college purchased, from the Department of Public Works of Canada, the land on which sat the former Carson School of Languages, contiguous to Aviation Parkway. Construction began the same year and the permanent campus of La Cité Collégiale was ready for the start of the 1995–1996 school year. Sitting on 24 hectares (59 acres) of land, the campus included eight buildings designed by Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects (BBB Architects), Panzini Architectes and Paquet: “The primary issue raised at the time of conception arose from a singular statement concerned with the affirmation of one culture in the midst of another; the underlying significance of La Cité Collégiale as a symbol of the Franco Ontarian identity within the community at large.”
Through the years, enrolment has grown and the range of training opportunities offered has continued to widen.
In 2013, the college went through a rebranding exercise with a new logo and a new brand, La Cité.