Laurentian University (Université Laurentienne), founded in 1960, is a mid-sized bilingual university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, approximately 400 km north of Toronto. While LU's focus is primarily on undergraduate programming, the university does offer a limited number of graduate-level degrees. It is the largest bilingual provider of distance education in Canada.

The university has a federated school structure, similar to that of the University of Toronto. The school also has an unusual and sometimes controversial student government structure — there are actually two separate student unions, one each for anglophone and francophone students. However, any student can affiliate with either union, regardless of language, and because the two unions do not offer identical student services, many students from one language group change their affiliation to the other student union depending on which services they want. Consequently, in practice the two student unions often simply compete with each other rather than serving distinct groups.

The university has great ties with the mining industry, being one of the few schools in Canada offering mining engineering and the only Canadian university located in a city where the major industry is mining. The Willett Green Miller Centre, a provincial building located on the site, is home to the Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO), a not-for-profit applied research and technical service company formed through collaboration between Laurentian University and the private and public sectors.

The university is also a key partner in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), the world's deepest underground laboratory that has been providing, since 1998, new clues on the composition of the sun and the origins of the universe.

In 2004, the University along with Lakehead University formed the Northern Ontario Medical School.

The university's campus radio station, CKLU, broadcasts at FM 96.7 in both English and French. Its campus newspapers are Lambda in English and L'Orignal déchaîné ("The Unchained Moose") in French. Its varsity teams in Canadian Interuniversity Sport are the Laurentian Voyageurs and the Laurentian Lady Vees.

Undergraduate Programs

ARTS

• General Arts
• Computer Science
• Fine Arts
• Mathematics
  

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Liberal Science
• General Science
  

PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL PROGRAMS

• Commerce
• Human Kinetics
• Midwifery
• Native Human Services
• Nursing
• Social Work
• Sports Administration

Federated Schools

• Algoma University College
• Huntington University
• Northern Ontario School of Medicine
• Université de Hearst
• Thorneloe University
• University of Sudbury

Nipissing University in North Bay, formerly a federated school of Laurentian, became an independent university in 1992.

External link

• http://www.laurentian.ca