Université de Montréal

A passion for learning unites the students who attend the University of Montreal. A passion for sharing knowledge motivates its faculty members. Passion drives its researchers and spurs them to explore the mysteries of the Universe, to participate in the big social debates and to do creative work. It truly takes passion to spend thousands of hours searching without necessarily knowing what you will find. This passion for exploration is at once a passion for excellence. And passion motivates the University’s administrative and support staff to help accomplish its core missions, day after day. Though they may be shy about recognizing the passion that inspires them, the members of the University of Montreal community understand their underlying passion to be a precondition for their engagement with their institution and society. Seen in this light, passion is not just a feeling but indeed a value.

In the face of disinformation, the climate crisis and technological advances on many fronts, the University of Montreal and its community cannot remain indifferent to the impact of their actions on society. The University undertakes to help the members of its student community improve their critical thinking skills, and to support reliance on evidence-based knowledge in public discourse. Our community aspires not only to an ethic of responsibi- lity, but more broadly to the development of a culture of responsibility. This value of res- ponsibility underpins our interactions with the communities with which we have ties. It also informs our relationship to the facts and the content of our educational programs. We want our researchers’ discoveries and intellectual output to be measured by the yardstick of responsible innovation. The University of Montreal wants its development to be sustainable for the environment and for society, and its choices to be consistent with this ideal.

The members of the University of Montreal community know that courage is one of the core values that unite them in their quest to expand the frontiers of thought or creation. The University experience provides them with the opportunity to develop the resilience and tenacity to boldly explore the world of ideas. It is by accepting the risks of the process of discovery that innovative solutions to the world’s problems are found. The University encourages its members not only to excel but sometimes to go where no one has gone before and do what has never been done. It takes courage to create. Demonstrating courage is therefore a commitment that the University makes to itself and to society.

The University of Montreal is the university of the world: the world of Montreal to begin with, a city teeming with creativity and dynamism; and also the world of global diversity, for Montreal is a cosmopolitan metropolis and the University of Montreal reflects the city that is its home; and finally, the world of the University community – students, alumni, teachers, administrative staff, support staff, donors and friends
of the University, all united in their commitment to the University’s mission to further the common good. The diverse world of the University of Montreal is a world with open doors. This is a value that is manifest in the respect and civility with which the members of our community treat one another. It is apparent in the way the University cares for its community, in its concern for its members’ well-being and for maintaining
a spirit of collegiality between them. Finally, it is evidenced in the University of Montreal’s commitment to inclusion and its concrete actions to embrace diversity in all aspects of the life of the University.

The University of Montreal values its members’ freedom to be. It guarantees their freedom of conscience, as well as freedom of thought, research and expression, without constraint or censorship, but while respecting others and their freedom. At the University of Montreal, freedom is always in symbiosis with reciprocity, tolerance and respect for intellectual integrity. This guarantee of freedom creates the necessary conditions for the expression of intellectual curiosity by the members of the University community. Recognizing that inequality can prevent the full exercise of these freedoms, the University understands that it must play a role in helping the members of its community overcome pre-existing inequalities and it calls on everyone to work together towards this end. Knowing that the work of achieving freedom must be done on the ground, in an environment of mutual responsibility and reciprocal openness, the University of Montreal pledges to help the members of its community accomplish it.