Université Laval was the very first French-language university in North America. In 1663 Monsignor François de Montmorency-Laval, the first bishop of New France, founded the colony’s first educational institution: Séminaire de Québec. Nearly 200 years later, in 1852, this institution became a university and the first building block for all French-language higher education in Québec, Canada, and North America.

The history of Université Laval is closely tied to that of Québec. For centuries this institution of higher learning has trained the intellectual elite of French-speaking Québec, and its influence continues to this day. Université Laval is considered a bulwark in the continued presence
and thriving of the French fact in North America.