The Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, is completely reviewing her controversial announcement on the revision of tuition fees in universities. She announced Thursday that she is exempting Bishop’s University from her reform, lowering fees for students from other Canadian provinces and subjecting universities to new funding requirements linked to the learning of French.
The minister has also still not specified what happens to French-speaking Canadian students who wish to come and study in Quebec.
Ms. Déry relied on the social network English speakers. She shared a letter she sent to McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s universities on December 14.
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, the Prime Minister, François Legault, had previously closed the door to an exemption for the Sherbrooke institution.
Minister Déry also announced that funding for McGill and Concordia universities — here too, Bishop’s is exempt — will be linked to the achievement of objectives for learning French. From the 2025-2026 academic year, “80% of new non-Quebec enrollees in an English-speaking study program” will therefore have to achieve, at the end of their undergraduate degree program, level 5 orally. This level, in the Quebec scale of French proficiency levels, is equivalent to the ability to communicate on current subjects, to describe the “essentials” of a situation.
From 2024-2025, universities will have to begin to modify their linguistic practices so that they demonstrate their commitment to French. “Part of the funding for non-Quebec students will be subject to the evaluation and development of French skills by establishments,” warns the minister in her letter.
The minister also reviewed her position on pricing for Canadian students who are not residents of Quebec. In November, she announced her intention to increase their tuition fees from $8,992 to $17,000. Ms. Déry then affirmed that this amount was the equivalent of what the training of these students costs the government. In her letter to universities, she now states that fees will increase to a minimum of $12,000.
Further details will follow.