Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at uOttawa: Education and fellowship of the highest degree
With 43,000 domestic and international students on campus, including 6,800 at the graduate level, the University of Ottawa is the largest bilingual (French-English) university in the world. This modern institution in the heart of the nation’s capital is a recognized leader in the advancement of interdisciplinary research in social sciences, health, engineering, science and the humanities.
For students seeking admission to high-quality, well-supported education at the higher levels through masters and doctorate programs, uOttawa makes an excellent destination of choice. As uOttawa recruiter François Thibeault points out, uOttawa has always invested in the resources and support it needs to ensure student success.
“Education is a precious gift,” he said. “We make sure we are offering our students the very best learning environment possible.”
That environment includes amazing work spaces such as the Faculty of Social Sciences building that opened in 2012, and an Advanced Research Complex that opened its doors in 2014 to allow the Science and Engineering faculties to bridge the gap between basic research and technological innovation. A brand new stateof-the-art Learning Crossroads campus study centre that opened earlier this year is equipped with extensive study spaces, and even a laboratory where students can try out new tools and technologies. Under construction is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) complex that will provide exciting new opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching, research and entrepreneurship.
The university is nothing, if not flexible. PhD Civil Engineering candidate Jacob Stolle is taking advantage of the cross-cultural benefits offered by a “cotutelle” program for doctoral students that has allowed him to extend his coastal engineering research studies to universities in Japan and Germany.
His fully funded research focuses on the effects of water and debris flow against structures during tsunami-like flooding events, and on designing structures that can survive these extreme forces.
In the fall, Stolle will begin a year-long term at the Technical University of Braunschweig near Hanover with Professor Nils Goseberg, before returning to Canada in 2019 for his final thesis work at uOttawa under the supervision of advisers Dr. Ioan Nistor and Dr. Emil Petriu. Stolle, who plans to follow a career in coastal engineering, said he is enjoying all aspects of his program, from writing academic papers and proposals for funding, to pouring concrete and doing numerical modelling.
“I get to dictate a lot of what I do, and mostly drive the project,” he said. “I’ve also been given a chance to teach a second-year fluid mechanics course to see if I would like to stay in the academic community. I really liked it.”
Former Communications faculty student Catherine Paquette, who today works as lead communications adviser for a political party in Quebec, attended uOttawa for her undergraduate degree in Public Relations, and to her surprise stayed on to complete a Master of Arts degree in Communication (Media Studies option) in 2015.
Paquette said she fully intended on moving back to Montreal after finishing her BA in 2013, but that all changed during the last session of her bachelor’s when one of her professors asked her to consider entering the Masters program under his supervision.
“The thought of continuing my education at uOttawa with Dr. Luc Dupont as my supervisor convinced me,” she said. “I don’t know if I would have gone on to do my MA otherwise.” During the summer before she started her Masters program, Paquette said her research topic “appeared out of nowhere” in the aftermath of the July 6, 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster.
“I was shocked, even traumatized by the tragedy,” she said. “As each day passed, and we learned more from the media about the communication strategies of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, it seemed obvious to me that this crisis management event would become a textbook case.”
Paquette said the smaller class sizes in the MA program allowed students to develop good team spirit and a special bond with their professors that deepened the learning process for her. Although she chose to take her courses only in French, the extensive faculty resources of uOttawa gave her access to senior level mentorship in both French and English.
“I loved my experience at uOttawa,” she said. “The campus, the facilities, the extremely helpful university resources — and most of all the professors — were extremely important factors for me.”
For more information on graduate and postdoctoral studies at uOttawa, visit