Up to 700 job losses, faculties “in danger” and the end for certain sports teams: the increase in tuition fees for out-of-province students could have “very significant” consequences for McGill University, warns its rector Deep Saini.
Quebec announced in October its intention to increase, starting next year, from nearly $9,000 to $17,000 the annual bill for new Canadian students at English-speaking universities.
The government argues that the majority of these university students leave Quebec after studying in English and benefiting from advantageous rates.
These changes “are a threat to the very culture of McGill University,” wrote the rector in a message sent Thursday to the university community.
He believes that since tuition fees “will be significantly higher” in Quebec than in other Canadian provinces, many students will choose to go elsewhere.
The university is working to fill this gap by recruiting students in Quebec and internationally, but, adds the rector, the “most optimistic estimates” show that “at most 80% of places left vacant by students )s elsewhere in Canada will thus be claimed, and this proportion would not exceed 20% in the worst scenario.”
This reduction could result in annual financial losses of $17.6 million to $69.8 million and lead to the elimination of 700 jobs and a hiring freeze.
Certain faculties could be particularly affected, continues Rector Saini.
“The blow will be particularly hard for the Schulich School of Music, almost 40% of whose undergraduate student population comes from outside Quebec,” he writes.
The Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Faculty of Educational Sciences would also be affected.
Ultimately, infrastructure projects could be compromised, says the rector. “The banks have already increased the short-term interest rate imposed on the University following the government announcement,” he writes.
The survival of certain sports teams would also be at stake, with the rector speaking of a “dissolution” or “amputation” of certain Redbirds and Martlets teams.
In 2022, 47% of McGill University students reported English as their first language. French was that of 20.5% of students. The remaining 32.5% had a mother tongue other than French or English.
Nearly half of the students came from Quebec, 22% from another Canadian province and 30% were international students.
A measure to “counter the decline of French”, says Legault
Tuesday, more than a hundred members of the Estrie community gathered to show their support for Bishop’s University, whose survival would be threatened by the increase in tuition fees decreed by the Legault government.
That same day, Concordia University warned of “devastating financial repercussions.”
According to rector Graham Carr, the university expects undergraduate enrollment from other provinces to decrease by 65 to 90% once the policy is implemented next fall.
On Monday, Prime Minister François Legault affirmed that “there are 9% of English speakers in Quebec”, but that “25% of places in universities in Quebec” are in the three English-speaking universities.
“Currently, there is a decline in French in Quebec,” he said. And among other things, there are many English-speaking students. So, the idea of the measures announced was to stop the increase in the number of English-speaking students in Quebec,” he added.
The Prime Minister says he is ready to meet with the leaders of Bishop’s, Concordia and McGill universities in the coming weeks.
With The Canadian Press