AQPC

AUTHORS:

• Sébastien Piché, history teacher, Cégep régional de Lanaudière à L’Assomption, and person in charge of the ARC’s history of college research project
• Gaston Faucher, retired academic dean of Cégep François-Xavier-Garneau.

The authors of this article identify the historic references that make it possible to understand the development of college research and specify the role played by the structuring of networks for establishments as well as researcher initiatives. From the initial excitement resulting from the abundance of new ideological trends, through the first acknowledgment of the quality of college research, its relevance and repercussions, up to the era characterised by the strength of the network where we see an intense mobilisation of the college milieu around research, the authors explain the foundations of this rapidly expanding activity. Then,  this golden age quickly gives way to a dramatic fall in research activities based on budget restraints linked to the abolition of the “banque des 150 ETC”, to the reduction in budgets for research programs, and, of course, to the advent of the reform which monopolized a considerable amount of educational resources. Despite this running out of steam that is still apparent today, the authors foresee better days ahead, given the initiatives taken in recent years with regard to financing and institutional policies.

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