# Dawson College

> Dawson College is Montreal's first English-language CEGEP, a public post-secondary institution serving roughly 10,000 full- and part-time learners across pre-university, technical, transition and continuing-education pathways. Its defining move is to treat a century-old former motherhouse and its 12-acre downtown site as a living laboratory: students study biodiversity, run sustainability projects and connect classroom work to public life while the college manages the less romantic realities of crowding, budgets and a complex heritage building.

- **Founded:** 1968
- **Headquarters:** Montreal, Canada
- **Team size:** Approximately 1,200 employees (provided estimate)
- **Products:** Pre-university DEC programs, Technical DEC programs, Transition programs, Continuing education, Living Campus
- **Notable:** Chartered in 1968 to establish Quebec's first English-language CEGEP and opened to 1,500 students in 1969., Grew to approximately 10,000 full- and part-time students and more than 110,000 alumni., Earned AASHE Gold status in 2020, the first Quebec CEGEP and sixth Canadian college reported to reach that level.

## Products & services

- **Pre-university DEC programs** — Two-year programs across science, social science, liberal arts, arts and related profiles that prepare students for university entry.
- **Technical DEC programs** — Three-year career programs in areas including health technologies, nursing, engineering technologies, computer science, design, photography, theatre and social service.
- **Transition programs** — One-year pathways including science and technology prerequisites and Journeys, a First Peoples college transition program.
- **Continuing education** — Evening credit study, university prerequisites, Springboard, AEC programs, recognition of acquired competencies and non-credit professional or personal development.
- **Living Campus** — Hands-on sustainability learning through biodiversity, gardens, urban agriculture, waste work, climate action and cross-disciplinary student projects.
- **Student services and campus life** — Academic advising, accessibility, financial aid, career support, athletics, clubs, health and well-being resources for a commuter student population.

## Achievements

- Chartered in 1968 to establish Quebec's first English-language CEGEP and opened to 1,500 students in 1969.
- Grew to approximately 10,000 full- and part-time students and more than 110,000 alumni.
- Earned AASHE Gold status in 2020, the first Quebec CEGEP and sixth Canadian college reported to reach that level.
- Named the top performer among associate colleges in AASHE's 2021 Sustainable Campus Index, with the Monarch Butterfly Nursery highlighted.
- Declared Carbon Neutral Forever after a unanimous Board of Governors vote in October 2018.
- Reported C$1.4 million in energy-cost savings over eight years following long-term efficiency work.
- Reduced natural-gas emissions by 50 percent and electricity-related emissions by 68 percent from 2010 levels, as reported in 2019.
- Consolidated a dispersed network of campuses into the repurposed motherhouse complex, completed in 1997.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Toby Harper-Merrett began as Director General on August 10, 2026.
- **2026-06** — Two Dawson graduates, Aljoscha Ziegler and Brent Suter, were named among 100 Schulich Leaders in Canada.
- **2026-06** — Science student Zhijian Sun won silver at the Canada-Wide Science Fair for a project addressing emergency-room wait times.
- **2026-05** — Students completed an intensive weekend of campus habitat work tied to Living Campus activities.
- **2026-04** — Dawson announced a micro-forest initiative developed with grant support and guidance from First Peoples' and Kanien'kehá:ka collaborators.
- **2026-04** — A Dawson biology team joined a five-year cross-Canada project studying how human activity is reshaping lake ecosystems through amphibian monitoring.
- **2025-05** — The college posted its 2024-2029 Strategic Plan, centering student achievement, community and environment under 'Well-being for All.'

## Links

- Website: https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/dawson-college/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/college_dawson
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DawsonCollegeMtl
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawsoncollege/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dawsoncollege

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dawson-college
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Last updated: 2026-08-24