(Quebec) The Legault government plans to significantly reduce tuition fees for French and Belgian students in order to attract more French-speakers to Quebec, we learned The Press.
Currently, these students pay tuition fees of $9,000 per year, which corresponds to the rate currently imposed on students from other Canadian provinces.
The scenario on the table in Quebec aims to make them pay the same fees as Quebec students: $2,880 per year. That would be a drop of almost 70%.
This measure is being considered as part of the preparation of the new university funding policy, a file led by the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry.
Quebec would return to the situation before 2015, the year when the Couillard government decided to triple the tuition fees of French students by imposing the “Canadian rate”. The increase was part of efforts to return to a balanced budget.
Today, the Legault government has set itself the objective of attracting more French-speaking students in order to protect the French language. Lowering tuition fees for students from France and Belgium is seen as one way to achieve this. The agreements with the two countries must be renegotiated soon.
According to the most recent statistics available, 16,000 French students attended a Quebec university in 2019-2020, which then represented a third of all foreign students. There were half as many (around 8,000) ten years earlier.
Quebec is also considering negotiating an agreement with Switzerland so that French-speaking students from this country also pay the same tuition fees as Quebec students.
If the Legault government wants to attract more French-speaking students, it is also to retain them here after their graduation.
It has in fact opened the floodgates of immigration for French-speaking foreign students graduating in Quebec. It plans to admit 6,500 next year in the Quebec Graduates component of the Quebec Experience Program – this is in addition to the target of 50,000 newcomers that it wants to welcome. It could accept even more graduates since there is no cap. Moreover, Quebec admitted nearly 9,000 foreign graduate students here in 2021 and 10,700 others in 2022 with this immigration program.
An 80% francization rate
The decision on the bill for French, Belgian and Swiss students will not be taken in the short term. The case for other foreign students and those from other Canadian provinces is hotter. And there is something new.
The Legault government wants to require English-speaking universities to Frenchify at least 80% of their students coming from other Canadian provinces and abroad, we have learned The Press.
This is twice as much as McGill and Concordia universities said they were capable of doing.
According to our information, this is an intention of Pascale Déry that the Council of Ministers must ratify this Wednesday during its weekly meeting.
On this same occasion, and as The Press revealed on November 29, the government must make the decision to increase by 33% – instead of doubling – tuition fees for students from other Canadian provinces starting at the start of the 2024 school year.
The rate must increase from $9,000 to $12,000 per year. Quebec initially considered increasing it to $17,000. The additional sums collected – several tens of millions – will be redistributed to French-speaking universities.
Bishop’s University, in Sherbrooke, will be exempt from this measure in a certain way, it is indicated behind the scenes.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry
The government will move forward as planned with the new fees for international students. He will set a floor rate of $20,000 for these students, out of which he will collect $3,000. The funds raised will once again be used to increase funding for French-speaking universities.
In Minister Déry’s office, “we are not confirming anything for the moment.” We add that an announcement will be made by the end of the week.
To try to convince the government to back down on the increase in tuition fees, McGill and Concordia universities proposed a plan aimed at francizing at least 40% of their non-French-speaking students coming from the rest of Canada and abroad, notably with the establishment of compulsory courses. They had suggested that these students “achieve French level 6 on the Échelle québécoise”. Level 6 is the intermediate stage of knowledge of French in the scale comprising 12 levels.
However, Minister Déry wants the plan to be more ambitious. She plans to ask them to ensure that at least 80% of their students have, by the end of their training, a knowledge of French equivalent to level 6, according to our information. The francization plan should be implemented at the start of the 2025 school year, Quebec hopes.
The government could give a financial boost to English-speaking universities to enable them to reach the target. But there could be penalties if the target is not met.