In reaction to the announcement from the Government of Quebec concerning the increase in tuition fees for students from other provinces, as well as for international students, we, professors of the Department of French Studies, would like to share of our concerns.
The Department of French Studies — with its three sectors: language, literature and translation — plays a key role within Concordia University through its contribution to learning French, perfecting the language and understanding the issues of society. However, recent government decisions risk jeopardizing our ability to maintain the quality of teaching and research, as well as our reputation.
In fact, our programs welcome not only members of the local population, but also a significant number of students from outside Quebec. For example, our French as a second language teaching program welcomes more than 1,300 Canadian and international students each year. Our literature courses offer an introduction to French-speaking culture to these French learners, allowing them to discover, through the imagination, various facets of Quebec society and, more generally, of the French-speaking world.
Our undergraduate and graduate translation programs welcome people from across Canada, the United States and internationally, who are already bilingual or French-speaking. Often, these people decide to study in Quebec for the love of the French language, having completed French immersion programs or language courses and, once their studies are completed, move to Quebec to live and work in French.
While the Prime Minister defends the increase in tuition fees by affirming that “the number of English-speaking students in Quebec threatens the survival of French”, our Department must be seen as an element of the solution which contributes to the valorization of the French language at Concordia and in Quebec more generally.
Concordia University has always been committed to providing the widest possible access to education and welcomes the diversity within its student population. In many ways — through the varied programs of the Department of French Studies, through the influence and reputation of the Department’s professors, through its research and teaching collaborations with French-speaking universities in Quebec and, moreover, through its testing center for the French Knowledge Test for Quebec (TCFQ) and the Réussir en français program, among others — Concordia University contributes to the promotion and enhancement of the French language.
For all these reasons, the Department of French Studies is opposed to the increase in tuition fees for university students from outside Quebec.