Quebec Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, is completely reviewing her controversial revision of university tuition fees. She announced Thursday that Bishop’s University will be exempt from her reform, that the increase in fees for students at “Rest of Canada” will be softened and new funding requirements related to learning French will be introduced.
In interview at Dutythe minister also declared that French-speaking students from other Canadian provinces would be exempt from the announced increases.
Mme Déry relied on the social network .
The elected official shared a letter that she had just sent to McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s universities. In it, she explains that Bishop’s will ultimately be exempt from the price review for students coming from other provinces, since “the demographic and linguistic situation in the Estrie region [est] distinct from that of the greater Montreal region. Bishop’s saw in Quebec’s announcement an “existential” threat. However, Prime Minister François Legault had previously closed the door to such an exemption.
1/3 On November 6, McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s universities recognized the decline of French in Quebec, particularly in Montreal, and expressed the desire to do more to Frenchify students outside Quebec. #polqc
Here is our response to the three universities.??????? pic.twitter.com/Y8v67oNJG0— Pascale Déry (@PascaleDery) December 14, 2023
New conditions for financing
Minister Déry also announced that funding for McGill and Concordia universities will be linked to the achievement of objectives on learning French and the “linguistic practices” of these establishments.
From 2025-2026, 80% of new non-Quebec enrollees in an English-speaking study program “will have to achieve, at the end of their undergraduate degree program, level 5 orally”. This level (on a scale which includes 12) is equivalent to the ability to communicate on current subjects, to describe the “essentials” of a situation.
All non-Quebec students will be taken into account: among the 80%, there could therefore be learners who already mastered French when they arrived at university. “We are becoming more French, and that’s a very good thing. […] But what we also want is to encourage and push universities to go [recruter des étudiants] in more French-speaking areas,” explained M.me Déry. She hopes to “change the face of Montreal”. Currently, 17.5% of international students attending English-speaking universities are French-speaking, according to the Déry cabinet. Among the students from other Canadian provinces, a few hundred are French-speaking.
In McGill’s opinion, reaching level 5 for a non-French speaker requires 200 hours of courses. According to Concordia, this target is “unrealistic and unattainable”. The two universities had previously proposed to Frenchify 40% of their non-French-speaking students. The 80% target is “unattainable” and will lead to “an unprecedented drop” in enrollment, “a drop that could compromise the very future of McGill University,” the institution warned.
McGill representatives tore the Déry reform to pieces, without excluding the possibility of turning to the courts or even opening a campus outside Quebec. They said they feared losing $94 million due to Quebec’s new measures.
A softening for the ROC
Mme Déry is also reviewing its position on pricing for Canadian students who are not residents of Quebec. In October, she announced her intention to increase their tuition fees from $8,992 to $17,000. She now says that the fees will increase to a minimum of $12,000. The elected official says “leaving $50 million on the table”, but being able to generate “a financial margin of 100 million” for the Quebec state, in particular because “the number of registrations is increasing”. French-speaking students from other Canadian provinces “will remain at the rate of $9,000,” assured the minister.
For Fabrice Lebeau, first executive vice-president of McGill, Minister Déry’s proposal is equivalent to offering to pay $50,000 rather than $75,000 for a car that costs $25,000 in Ontario. “It’s still unrealistic in terms of competition,” he said. McGill said it had already observed a 20% drop in one year in applications for admission from other Canadian provinces.
The only measure from the October 13 announcement that still stands is that which concerns international students, who will have to pay a floor price of $20,000.
Of this amount, the government takes “a tax of approximately $5,000” per student, McGill noted. Concordia calculates that the share that goes to Quebec is, on average, $5,500. Mme Déry suggests that his ministry recovers $3,000. The idea of this equalization system is to “rebalance income from international students” to encourage the growth of French-speaking universities, according to the government.