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50 years: Forever Forward


Future looks bright as Concordia University marks 50 years

A young man with a striped blue and white dress shirt looks at the camera with a confident smile. Bogdan Lytvynenko is Concordia University’s 12th Rhodes Scholar and was named one of its 50 Great Concordians in celebration of the institution’s golden anniversary.

When Bogdan Lytvynenko was looking for a university to learn about journalism, multimedia and political and international news reporting, he considered several ivy-covered old schools before deciding on the relatively young Concordia University, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

“I opted for Concordia’s journalism program because it offered a well-rounded combination of academics and practical skills, says Lytvynenko, 24, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts last year and is now enrolled in a master’s in international governance and diplomacy at the venerated Sciences-Po Paris, in France.

From access to topnotch teachers, state-of-the-art equipment and practical experience working on its student newspaper, Lytvynenko, who is heading to Oxford University next year, says Concordia “has been hugely supportive, guiding and encouraging me all the way.”

“It’s incredible what you can accomplish at Concordia,” he adds. It genuinely prepared me to face the world’s pressing issues in media, economics and now, in international relations.”

The university’s 12th Rhodes scholar, Lytvynenko has also been added to the university’s list of “Great Concordians.” Between now and June 2025, to celebrate its golden anniversary, Concordia is honouring 50 alumni who have excelled in academics, professions, science, fashion and the arts.

It can be hard to tell where Concordia ends and the rest of the city begins.

Graham Carr, President and Vice-Chancellor, Concordia University

Since it was first established in 1974, the university has become a keystone institution with worldwide recognition. This year, it scored the top spot in North America in the Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings.

“I don’t think anybody at the time of Concordia’s founding a half-century ago could have imagined that we’d achieve the level of success that we have reached, and grown as much as we have grown,” says President and Vice-Chancellor Graham Carr.

Created through the merger of Sir George Williams University and Loyola College in Montreal, two of the city’s smaller higher-education institutions at the time, it now has a large downtown campus and a more traditional quadrangle-styled campus in the Montreal neighbourhood of NDG (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce). It has become integral to the fabric of life in the city, a magnet for talent and a global leader in both research and the arts.

“We now have nearly 50,000 students and more than 262,000 alumni, and at the same time, we’ve managed to stay true to our roots, in terms of both academic excellence and accessibility for people of all different backgrounds,” Dr. Carr says.

A women's hockey team celebrates a victory while wearing medals and hoisting a trophy. The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team, after winning gold at the U Sports national championship for the second time in three years.

Concordia’s goal – to be welcoming, engaging and committed to excellence in education, research, creative activity and community partnerships – is reflected in its rapid growth, offering a broad curriculum in engineering, computer science, fine arts, business, science and the humanities.

A multicultural, multilingual institution, its economic impact is sizeable (about $2-billion to the province alone). Approximately 180,000 of its graduates either live or have lived in the metropolitan area, contributing to the community and society.

“It can be hard to tell where Concordia ends and the rest of the city begins,” Dr. Carr says.

More than mere markers on the 50-year journey to Concordia’s stellar academic and global reputation are its many milestones, says Dr. Carr, such as the opening of Concordia’s Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies in 1977; its hosting of the first John Molson MBA international case competition, now the world’s largest and most respected of its kind; and the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Canada’s largest university-based centre for the study of film animation and film production.

“We are notching up achievements in all kinds of areas – cybersecurity, electrification, battery development and also fine arts and cinema, not to mention sports,” Dr. Carr says.

“Our students get tremendous opportunities to become practically involved,” he notes. We have an extraordinary commitment to work-integrated learning. We had 6,000 students enrolled in experiential learning programs last year alone.”

It costs a lot for Concordia to maintain its leading edge. “Universities across Canada are underfunded by provincial governments,” says Dr. Carr, which is why the university launched an ambitious fundraising campaign for Concordia to propel it into the next 50 years.

On the horizon, Concordia is developing the School of Health, which aims to apply the university’s research to fill gaps in the system – health, prevention, entrepreneurship and community health, for example – “to complement what medical schools are doing and fill a real social need,” explains Dr. Carr.

“It’s a challenging time for higher education everywhere, but we feel Concordia is suited to meet those challenges,” says Dr. Carr. “We’re anchored in the community and responsive to the needs of a changing society.”

Learn more about Concordia’s 50th anniversary.

Fifty years of achieving firsts

In its 50-year history, Concordia University’s many pivotal successes extend from its campus buildings in Montreal to outer space. These achievements include:

Engineering

In 1989, Iranian-Canadian engineer Dr. Gina Cody became the first woman at the university to be awarded a PhD in building engineering, and in 2018, the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science opened. Many of its researchers support Concordia’s Canada Excellence Research Chair in Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Communities and Cities that enable the next-generation work of three research chairs – on the internet of things, artificial intelligence and industry 4.0. Dr. Cody, who graced her alma mater with an astounding $15-million gift, says it’s “an honour to have the school named after me, but it’s not about my name – it’s about having an engineering school named after a woman. I think it helps female students say to themselves, ‘I belong here.’”

As Concordia’s Co-Chancellor, Dr. Cody sees first-hand how lending her name has helped break down gender barriers. “I had a student from Vietnam who told me her mother did not think women could go into engineering until she found out the school had a woman’s name. Her mother said she could go – so while things like a name may be symbolic, they can also move the needle.”

Aerospace

Space Concordia Rocketry Division is an innovative student rocketry team and the current record holder of the most powerful student-built rocket engine. In 2021, the division set a world record for being the first rocket engine developed and fired by civilians. Two years later, Space Concordia launched the first space-bound, student-built satellite in Quebec. Space Concordia Rocketry is now developing a 13-metre (42-foot) rocket with the goal of launching it past the Kármán line 100 kilometres into space. This fully reuseable rocket can travel at Mach 5.7 – nearly six times the speed of sound.

Athletics

Concordians have flourished in athletics throughout its 50 years, bringing home championships and individual medals and awards, including Olympic gold. The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team won gold for the first time in 23 years in 2022 at the U Sports women’s hockey national championship – and again in 2024. In 2010, Alexandre Bilodeau (2016 Bachelor of Commerce graduate) became the first Canadian athlete to win an Olympic Gold Medal on home soil at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver for freestyle skiing. And in 2022, Concordians brought home medals from the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics: Pascal Dion (Olympic gold), Anton Jacobs-Webb (Paralympics silver) and Marion Thénault (Olympic bronze).

Fine Arts

In 1997, the department of cinema, established in 1976, was renamed the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema – after the renowned Montreal film and television industry leader and philanthropist – and is now the largest university-based centre in Canada for filmmaking, animation and film studies. Known for nurturing film and stage professionals, it has an impressive list of award winners, including Genies, Emmys, Tonys and Oscars. The Faculty of Fine Arts was the first in Canada to offer a design and computation arts program and in 2002, developed the first wearable computers. Marking a milestone for Indigenous-led scholarship, in 2021, Concordia launched the Indigenous Futures Research Centre (IFRC), co-directed by Jason Edward Lewis, former Chair in computational media.

Business

After receiving a generous gift from the Molson family, the Faculty of Commerce and Administration was renamed the John Molson School of Business in 2000. It became the first Quebec business school and fourth in Canada to earn full accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. In 2009, the Molson Building on Guy Street opened with a fully functional solar wall that generates electricity from the sun – a world first for a university building. The school has been rising in the rankings of business schools, reaching second in Canada in Bloomberg Businessweek’s Best B-Schools Survey this year.

Computer Science

Concordia has been researching artificial intelligence long before the technology became the huge force it is today. In 1978, Dr. Ching Yee Suen, honorary Concordia University research chair in artificial intelligence and pattern recognition, launched the university’s first research unit to advance AI technologies. Ten years later, Concordia’s Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science established the Centre for Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (CENPARMI), which remains a hub of innovation and boasts the membership of several prominent researchers and leading industry partners, such as IBM, Bell Quebec and NTT (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph of Japan).

Environment

Concordia opened the Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (CZEBS) in 1977, the university’s first research foray into the construction of safer and more environmentally efficient buildings and an early pioneer in this field. It has proved critically important to Canada and other nations aiming to reach net zero carbon emission and energy efficiency targets. CZEBS enriches the learning and research experience of students and assists industry in implementing research results and innovations. Its latest projects include a partnership with Hydro Quebec, among others, to research how to transform energy management in buildings across Canada by better integrating them with smart grids and using digital technology to monitor and manage electricity.

Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Concordia University. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.