Describing students in
Quebec as falling a year behind is perhaps a little innacurate. In a technical sense yes, they are delaying
university by a year. But Quebec Universities are naturally adapted to this. Also, since
CEGEP's offer a
university lifestyle and programs that are
high school-level in their intensity, it makes the transition from high school to university considerably smoother.
There are hundreds od CEGEP's in Quebec in both English and French with innumerable specialties and exclusive programs. Two I will mention are John Abbott College and Vanier, simply because they have their own write-ups.
Recently, the future of CEGEPs in the educational system has come into question. One of the reasons these schools were brought into existence was to address the large number of students failing their first semester(s) of university. Although effective at first, many students are now faling their first semester of CEGEP, so the problem hasn't really been permanently solved. It is also a widely-held belief that CEGEPs have become too rigid in their structure, a belief I'm inclined to agree with. Insofar as being a pre-university insitution, the programs now offered are extremely limiting when it comes to the paths they open to higher learning.