Summary
Université Laval (English: Laval University) is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by François de Montmorency-Laval as Séminaire de Québec in 1663, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Canada and the first North American institution to offer higher education in French. The university, which was founded in Old Québec, moved to a new campus in the 1950s in the suburban borough of Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge. It is ranked among the top 10 Canadian universities in research funding and holds four Canada Excellence Research Chairs. Like most institutions in Quebec, the name "Université Laval" is not translated into English. The courses are offered in French. The university's beginnings go back to 1663 with the founding of the Grand Séminaire de Québec and 1668 with the founding of the Petit Séminaire by François de Montmorency-Laval, a member of the House of Laval and the first Bishop of New France. During the French Regime the institution mainly trained priests to serve in New France. After the Conquest of 1760, the British expanded education in Canada to include the liberal arts. French Canadians had at the time no opportunity to pursue higher education, and Bishop Bourget of Montreal suggested expanding the Séminaire de Québec into Université Laval. Louis Casault, a priest who taught physics at the Séminaire de Québec, went to Europe to seek a royal charter and study the best university systems there. The Séminaire de Québec was granted a royal charter on December 8, 1852, by Queen Victoria, at the request of Lord Elgin (Governor-General of the Province of Canada), creating Université Laval with "the rights and privileges of a university". The charter was signed in 1852. Pope Benedict XV approved the plan and authorized the institution to establish chairs of theology and confer degrees. In 1878, the university opened a second campus in Montreal, which became the Université de Montréal on May 8, 1919, by a writ of Pope Benedict XV.
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