(Quebec) Quebec’s English-speaking universities have offered to Prime Minister François Legault to Frenchify at least 40% of their non-French-speaking students coming from the rest of Canada and abroad, among other things with the establishment of compulsory courses.
In return, they want his government to renounce doubling tuition fees for students from other provinces and abandon the new pricing for foreign students.
The presidents of McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s universities met with François Legault at his Montreal offices late Monday morning.
They made him a proposal to convince the government to back down on its new pricing model announced on October 13.
The Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, intends to increase tuition fees for Canadian students not resident in Quebec from $9,000 to $17,000 for the start of next year’s school year, which would represent $110 million. She wants to set the floor rate for foreign students at $20,000, an amount from which the government intends to collect $3,000. The amounts raised would be used to increase funding for French-speaking universities. These measures are part of the government’s action plan on the future of the French language.
The three English-speaking universities condemn this decision and predict a drop in the number of students coming from elsewhere. According to their rectors, the survival of Bishop’s is at stake, while McGill and Concordia could suffer combined losses of more than 100 million under “cautious scenarios”.
“We also recognize that French remains threatened in Quebec, particularly in Montreal, and reaffirm that all universities are the government’s natural allies in the protection, promotion and influence of French in Quebec and elsewhere in the world,” can we read in their proposal that The Press obtained.
“It is essential to protect the French language; we are deeply convinced of this. However, we believe that it is better to Frenchify students coming from outside Quebec when they arrive here, rather than immediately excluding them through prohibitive pricing policies,” we add.
Thus, “Quebec’s English-speaking universities will mobilize to increase the linguistic and cultural integration of their non-French-speaking students.” They make a “commitment” to deploy “a complete range of new initiatives aimed at promoting French and better knowledge of Quebec society”.
“Among these new initiatives, Concordia and McGill universities, recognizing the linguistic diversity specific to Montreal, are committed to establishing, within three years, compulsory French as a second language courses and activities, with a view to effectively supporting the professional integration within the metropolis. » A student who has such a compulsory course in his or her career would have to pass it to obtain their diploma, according to details we have obtained.
“In collaboration with the government of Quebec,” we add, “English-language universities are also committed to substantially increasing the offering of French as a second language courses for Canadian students who are not residents of Quebec and non-French-speaking international students and to create new incentives for learning French. »
“Of course, the objective is ambitious, but demonstrates a resolute desire: to aim for at least 40% of non-French-speaking students enrolled in undergraduate programs to reach level 6 of French on the Quebec scale, equivalent to a B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, upon obtaining their diploma.” Level 6 is the intermediate stage of intermediate knowledge of French in the scale comprising 12 levels.
To achieve the objective, English-speaking universities propose to introduce, “with the collaboration of the government”, “considerable incentives” such as scholarships rewarding students who “manage to officially certify this level of mastery of French”.
Universities say they are ready to increase the offering of French as a second language courses adapted to students’ skills, to increase the number of internships in French, to develop initiatives to ensure success in professional exams and to encourage entry into the market. of work, to organize activities to promote Quebec culture.
They ask the government to maintain the status in the pricing of Canadian students not resident in Quebec ($9,000). They also demand the abandonment of the new pricing for foreign students and “the implementation of alternative solutions to balance the financing of universities […] to ensure that they are sustainable and equitable for the entire network.”