Tuition fees for students outside Quebec: Pascal Déry could appeal

Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry has not ruled out appealing the Quebec Superior Court’s decision that overturned the tuition fee increase for students from other Canadian provinces.

“We are currently evaluating all options. There is still a 30-day appeal period for both parties,” the minister said at a press briefing Tuesday at the National Assembly.

Last week’s decision is a partial victory for Montreal’s two English-language universities, McGill and Concordia, which have stated that recent changes made by the Quebec government have led to a decline in enrollment.

Judge Éric Dufour stated that the government’s decision, made in 2023, to increase tuition fees for Canadian students outside Quebec by $3,000 (33 per cent) was unreasonable and “not justified by existing and convincing data.”

“We must ask ourselves the question: should Quebec taxpayers be paying a high price for the education of Canadian students outside Quebec?” the minister said Tuesday.

The ruling states that the government has nine months to comply.

The decision also overturns a new requirement that 80 per cent of undergraduate students outside Quebec enrolled in English-speaking universities must achieve an intermediate level of proficiency in French by the time they graduate. This rule was supposed to come into effect this fall.

“The judge still agrees with us, especially on French. We’re told that it’s the minister’s responsibility to protect the French language. So, that objective will be maintained. For me, it’s very important that the students we integrate into Quebec be able to master French,” said Déry.

Judge Dufour, however, upheld the Quebec government’s decision to set minimum tuition fees for international students at approximately $20,000 and to recover a large portion of the funds from English-speaking institutions to redistribute to French-speaking universities.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews