Higher education in Quebec differs from the education system of other provinces in Canada. Instead of entering university or college directly from high school, students in Quebec leave secondary school after Grade 11 (or Secondary V), and enter post-secondary studies at the college level, as a prerequisite to university. Although both public colleges (CEGEPs) and private colleges exist, both are colloquially termed CEGEPs. This level of post-secondary education allows students to choose either a vocational path or a more academic path.

Many factors have led to the province's current system of higher education, including linguistic, cultural and class tensions, as well as provincial distribution of natural resources and population. The Quiet Revolution of the 1960s also brought about many changes that are still reflected in the province's higher education system.

The provincial government is responsible for education in Quebec through the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sport.

Higher education in Quebec is available in both English and French at all levels. Unlike at the primary and secondary levels of education, wherein English-language instruction is permitted only under very specific circumstances, all tertiary students can choose to pursue post-secondary studies (in college and university) in English. , there are seventeen universities, three of which are English-language institutions. There are 54 CEGEPs in total, in six of which the language of instruction is English.

History

1600s and 1700s Formal education in Quebec began almost four hundred years ago, with the arrival of the Ursuline nuns to Lower Canada, and later the inauguration of the Jesuit College was inaugurated in 1635 in Quebec City. The Jesuit College's initial vocation was to give the children of the colonists a classical education. It was the only institution to offer both primary and secondary instruction throughout the French régime.Education of Children in New France "Schools in France" Retrieved August 1, 2008, Book The Quebec Seminary opened in 1663 through the merging of the Petit Séminaire and Grand Séminaire. This institution was initially formed to train the citizens of the colony to be priests and church ministers. The Quebec Seminary later founded Université Laval. The clerical presence in Quebec education would continue into the 20th century, later developing into a schism between Catholic and Protestant Quebec.

While the system was initially private, in 1789, a Commission on Education chaired by Judge William Smith proposed the establishment of a public system from elementary school through to university. It recommended that the system include a non-denominational university governed by lay and religious representatives – both Catholic and Protestant – that would attract members of both faiths. The Catholic clergy were suspicious of Protestant influence and Smith's recommendations were rejected. This report was a catalyst for debate about the divided nature of the Quebec education system. The system did not secularize until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s.

1800s Higher Education in Quebec was established at the base of Mont Royal in Montreal when James McGill left £10,000 and a forty-six acre estate for the founding of a university in 1821. Eight years later classes at McGill University began when a Montreal medical school was merged with McGill. Four years later William Leslie Logie was the first graduate, awarded a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery. Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal was created in 1848 by the Jesuits. Three years later, in 1851, Université Laval was founded in Quebec City as the first major French Language higher education institution. Laval University grew out of the Quebec Seminary. In 1843, Bishops University was established in Lennoxville. Specializing in undergraduate education, its mandate was to represent both British and rural Quebec traditions. Twenty years later (1873) the École Polytechnique opened in Montreal. Then in 1896, Loyola College was founded as the English sector of the Jesuit Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal. The flourishing of English-language education in this period reflects the English conquest of Quebec, and it corresponded to an exodus of French clergy that seriously compromised the French-language education of the period. "Of all the educational problems in "Quebec in the second half of the century, none was perceived as moer serious or persistent than the rural school problem"Robert Magnuson, 1980 (the rural, in the demographics of the era, was almost exclusively French). So, French-language education in this period suffered while the Anglophone system progressed.

1900–1960 In 1915, the École des Hautes Études Commerciales opened in Montreal. Five year later, the École des Hautes Études Commerciales merged with the École Polytechnique and a branch of Laval University forming the University of Montreal in 1920. Although merged, all three institutions maintained unique identities. Sir George Williams College was founded in Montreal in 1926, offering evening classes for the English-speaking community. Sir George William College received a university charter from the provincial government and became Sir George William University. 1954 saw the founding of the University of Sherbrooke. Similar in nature to Bishop's University, it was created to meet the needs of francophones in Quebec.

1945 – 1959:

- Period of rapid economic and population growth: due to high birth rate and immigration

- Postwar industrial development led to a new middle class (Quebec society was still rural and was categorized according to religion and language)

- French Quebec had the highest elementary school drop out rate (52% from grade 2 to grade 8) in Canada, and English Quebec the lowest (10%).

- classical colleges: organized to provide a classical and general education, rather than meet postwar needs for science, technology and commerce.

- colleges were vulnerable: they "depended upon volunteer religious teachers, and the curriculum focused almost entirely on the humanities".

By 1959, there were three French-language universities: Laval, Montreal and Sherbrooke. There were two teacher training colleges, or Normal Schools (St. Joseph's Teacher College ), two liberal arts colleges (Loyola and Marianopolis) and three English-language universities (McGill, Bishop's and George William.

Prior to 1960, Francophone Quebec had been traditionally loyal to the church, had an elitist view of society and separated from economic concerns. The church was the authority in education in the province.

The National Film Board of Canada documentary "Collèges classiques" (1961), directed by Pierre Patry, documents the origins of Classical Colleges in Quebec and discusses changes, such as an increasing emphasis on the sciences.

1960–2000 Jean Lesage was elected as premier of Quebec in 1960, and instituted sweeping educational reforms, setting up the structure still in place today. Re-structuring the education system was part of the larger Quiet Revolution, in which Quebec (especially Francophones) modernized and secularized. Under the Lesage government, the recommendations of the Parent Report were taken up and had lasting effect on Quebec education, including unprecedented amounts of public spending on education.Robert Magnuson, 1980, pp. 102-123 The Parent Report helped create the Ministry of Education (later renamed Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports), the CEGEP system, as well as to dismantle the denominational schism in Quebec's school system. The Protestant and Catholic school boards formalized by the late 19th centuryRobert Magnuson, 1980, pp. 51-55 operated with barely any communication with each other, the result of which was a sharp difference in the quality of education for Catholic and Protestant (corresponding to Francophone and Anglophone) citizens of Quebec. The population served by the Protestant school board was substantially smaller than that of the Catholic, benefitting also from more secular educational principles inspired by the Scottish model.Robert Magnuson, 1980, pp. 35 The Quiet Revolution and the Parent Report addressed long-standing inequality between English and French Quebec, though the Report was also part of a larger national trend during this period (e.g. The MacDonald Report in British Columbia).

The Parent Report: Democratization and Access to higher education were priorities for the Quebec Government. Therefore, the government recognized the need for development of its educational resources, which led to the Parent Commission, a mandate to investigate the entire educational system in Quebec. This commission conducted public hearings, visited more than 50 institutions throughout the province, interviewed more than 200 experts, and visited educational institutions in other provinces, in the US and Europe.

Democratization of the system and Access to students were the key words in the report, and the access referred to students were not being prevented by geography or finances from going as far as possible in the system. A universal right to education was unquestioned. This premise was revolutionary, because the post-compulsory education (after the age of 14) was a privilege or a luxury, not suitable for everyone.

According to Henchey and Burgess, there have been five major changes to the Quebec Higher Education system since the 1960s: The demand on the post secondary system saw increases of sixty percent per decade until the 1980s. This growth was due largely to the growth in Quebec's population and the need for more specialized post-secondary training requirements. With enrolment increasing by one hundred and fifty percent from 1967 until 1983, a joint committee was established whose representatives included secondary school personnel and university admissions officers for the purpose of consolidating and an expanding regular programs. This helped to smooth articulation between the various colleges and universities, both public and private, which increased the volume of students. This committee was the result of a provincial royal commission recommendation that stressed the need to accommodate an increasing demand for higher education, and to provide industry with the higher degree of skilled labour required in the industrialized province. In 1969, ÉNAP (École Nationale d'Administration Publiques) forms as the Public Administration University, and in October 1972, Télé-université is established as a multi-mode francophone university when parliament created the Commission of the Télé-université, on an experimental basis, for a five-year period. Loyola would cease to exist in 1974 when it is merged with Sir George Williams University to become Concordia University. Although both institutions had religious roots as Jesuit and Christian, Concordia is established as a secular institution. Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean opens in 1985 and offers instruction in the sciences. The establishment of CEGEPS and the University of Quebec System changed the institutional patterns.