‘Catastrophic’: Quebec confirms tuition hike and French requirements for out-of-province students at English universities
Posted December 14, 2023 11:06 am.
Last Updated December 14, 2023 6:30 pm.
The Quebec government is hiking tuition to $12,000 a year and imposing a French-language requirement for out-of-province students at English universities.
Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry, sent a letter to English universities Thursday morning confirming the government wants Canadian and foreign graduates to better integrate in Quebec society.
80 per cent of out-of-province students at English universities, including McGill, Concordia, and Bishops, will need to graduate with intermediate level French as of fall 2025.
“I can only view this as a target attack on institutions that have been part of Quebec, and that have contributed to Quebec for hundreds of years. We categorically reject the position of the government. It is incoherent policy based on impressions and emotions rather than evidence that simply does not serve Quebec. We will look at any and all options to ensure that we will continue to fulfill our mission to protect our academic excellence to continue to serve students from Quebec and from around the world,” said Deep Saini, the Vice-Chancellor of McGill University.
“These policies are unacceptable. They are incoherent, not based on data and will not meet the stated objectives of the government. More importantly, their effect on the Quebec economy and on Quebec universities will be absolutely devastating. In short, they do not serve Quebecers well,” he added.
A copy of the letter was posted to the X social media platform.
“The letter that I received from the Minister, it actually threatens that we will impose further financial penalties on the universities if they fail to achieve 80 per cent, a target that’s unachievable,” said Saini.
Last month, in a effort to convince the CAQ government to drop its plan to double tuition fees for out-of-province students at English universities, McGill, Concordia, and Bishop’s promised to “substantially” increase the number of French courses offered if current tuition rates were maintained. The plan includes incentives to learn French for students from outside the province and mandatory French classes at the two Montreal universities.
The 80 per cent set by the CAQ government on Thursday is twice the number of students than initially proposed by McGill and Concordia.
“It’s completely unrealistic, unrealistic terms of capacity to deliver that scale,” said Concordia University President, Graham Carr. “But unrealistic also because the announcements by the government are going to have such a negative impact on our budget that the financial resources required to undertake a francisation exercise on that scale simply won’t be possible for us, so it makes absolutely no sense.”
“Are we going to make a four-year degree into a four-in-a-half year degree? Or are we actually going to displace Engineering credits and replace them with French credits?” asked Saini, adding the the issue does not lie with instructing and learning French, but the academic changes it’ll make.
“I wouldn’t necessarily want to have to be required to study something,” said prospective student at McGill, Daniel Jennings from Vancouver Island B.C.
The letter also confirms a lower than initially planned tuition increase for Canadian out-of-province students at English Universities. As of fall 2024, they will pay $12,000 yearly, a 33 per cent increase, rather than $17,000 – a doubling of tuition fees.
“There is actually no difference because it is still twice as high a tuition as compared to our competition outside Quebec,” said Saini.
However, tuition for international students at English universities will remain as high as she previously announced, a minimum of $20,000.
Bishop’s University partially exempt
The minister’s letter states that Bishop’s university in the Eastern Townships will be partially exempt from the tuition increase – 825 students annually from out-of-province will be permitted to pay the current tuition rate.
Bishop’s called Thursday’s decision a positive outcome for the university. Sebastien Lebel-Grenier, principal and vice-chancellor, said in a statement that the school’s community was able to “convince the Quebec government that we and the students we welcome to campus from the rest of Canada are not a threat to the French language but rather an essential part of what makes our region unique.”
