Bishop’s University is a “special” case and the Legault government must show flexibility towards it in the application of the new increase in tuition fees in English-speaking universities, believes the Parti Québécois.
“The case of Bishop’s is really special: it is not at all the model of McGill, of Concordia. I think we must be flexible on the means, but keep in mind the objective, namely that the financing of French-speaking universities is not at all that of English-speaking universities,” declared Tuesday the PQ leader, Paul St- Pierre Plamondon.
Should Quebec therefore provide special arrangements for Sherbrooke University? “At the very least, I think, in good faith, that we must listen to what Bishop’s is proposing and evaluate a case that can be described as special, very different from what is happening in the Montreal region with universities main ones,” replied the PQ leader.
The new university funding policy constitutes, according to the principal and vice-chancellor of Bishop’s, an “existential threat” to the establishment of the district of Lennoxville. In interview at Duty in mid-October, Sébastien Lebel-Grenier declared that the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, was “sensitive” to the reality of the university.
On October 17, Prime Minister François Legault quickly closed the door on the idea of exempting Bishop’s from these new measures. But on Tuesday, Minister Déry showed signs of openness. “We will find a solution for Bishop’s. It’s a more particular reality,” she admitted. Mme Déry stressed that “the decline of French” was more significant in Montreal, and recalled that Bishop’s is located “in the region”.
Nearly a third of the students at this Sherbrooke university come from other Canadian provinces, and a little less than 15% of its students are international. The university is therefore attacked on two fronts by Quebec’s measure. She expects to lose “the majority” of her students from the rest of Canada due to the increase in tuition fees, but also two million dollars per year under the new sharing of income from foreign students. In a letter it co-signed with McGill and Concordia universities, Bishop’s wrote Monday that new government policies jeopardize its “survival.”
As of fall 2024, Quebec intends to increase tuition fees for Canadian students not residing in Quebec from $8,992 to approximately $17,000. The government also wants to put in place an income sharing system for foreign students, who will pay at least $20,000 to study in Quebec. He says he hopes to recover $100 million with this measure.
With François Carabin