Université du Québec à Rimouski

Université du Québec à Rimouski is a French-language university on the south shore of the St Lawrence estuary, founded 1969 as part of the Université du Québec network. Its distinctive strength is marine science. The university's oceanography institute is among the leading Canadian centres in the field, working on the estuary and the Gulf of St Lawrence, and it also has substantial provision in nordicity — the study of northern and cold-climate environments. Nordicity is worth noting for a Kazakh applicant. Cold-climate infrastructure, permafrost and northern environmental management are problems Kazakhstan shares, and there are few places that study them systematically. Rimouski is small and remote — roughly 300 kilometres northeast of Quebec City — strongly francophone, with very low living costs and a very small international community.