The Legault government will drastically increase tuition fees for Canadian students next fall and impose a minimum rate of $20,000 per year on foreign students. The measure arouses strong opposition from English-speaking universities, who fear that it will discourage this clientele from coming to learn in Quebec. Who exactly is affected by this reform? And what does it imply? Explanations.
Who is affected by this measure?
All students from the rest of Canada or abroad studying at the undergraduate level at a Quebec university (certificate or baccalaureate, for example) are affected. Those who study in the second professional cycle and who therefore do not write a dissertation – in business administration (MBA) or speech therapy, in particular – are also.
There are, however, a few exceptions. Thus, students from France and Belgium, who pay less than other foreign students under international agreements, are not affected by this reform. This is also the case for master’s and doctoral students (second and third university cycles). Canadian or foreign students already registered in a study program will also see no difference in their tuition fees.
The Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, specified that Canadian students from outside Quebec who wish to study in French will be exempt from this increase, but the details of the measure are not yet known.
How many students are affected?
According to data from the Quebec Ministry of Higher Education, 14,340 students from elsewhere in Canada were enrolled in a Quebec university in 2021, mainly in English-speaking educational establishments. Some 47,860 foreign students were studying in French-speaking or English-speaking universities in Quebec.
In 2021, approximately 80% of students in the university network came from Quebec, compared to 4.7% for the rest of Canada and 16% from abroad.
How much do students from outside Quebec pay right now? What will change for them?
On its website, the University of Montreal estimates that the bill is $5,071.73 per term for a Canadian student enrolled in a full-time undergraduate program; it would therefore be a little more than $10,000 for a year of study. As for Concordia University, it costs $8,992 per year for a Canadian student from outside Quebec, regardless of discipline.
For international students, whose fees had been deregulated, this varies from one university to another — and from one program to another. At Concordia, it costs an international student around $25,000 per year on average.
Quebec will now set floor rates for Canadian students and international students, and universities will retain the right to charge discretionary amounts. Canadian students will thus pay the equivalent of what their training costs the government, that is to say $17,000 per year — which represents a significant jump in their tuition fees. International students will be charged a floor price of $20,000.
The Quebec government will pocket part of the money recovered by this reform in order to reinvest it in the French-speaking university network.
How much does a Quebecer pay who studies elsewhere in Canada?
The answer varies by university and program, found The duty.
At the University of Toronto, for example, tuition fees charged to Ontarians and other Canadians differ. Someone starting a bachelor’s degree in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will pay $6,590 per year if they are from another province, while an Ontario student will pay $6,100.
At the University of British Columbia (UBC), on the other hand, any Canadian student, whether from the province or not, will pay the same tuition fees, which vary from $5,800 to $9,400 per year depending on the undergraduate program concerned.