Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry is fundamentally rethinking her controversial tuition fee changes. She announced Thursday that Bishop's University would be exempt from her reform, that the fee increase for students from the “rest of Canada” would be softened and that new funding requirements for French language learning would be introduced.
In an interview with Le Devoir, the minister also explained that French-speaking students from other Canadian provinces would be exempt from the announced increases.
Ms. Déry relied on the English-language social network.
The elected official released a letter she had just sent to McGill, Concordia and Bishop universities. In it she explains that Bishop's will ultimately be exempt from the price review for students from other provinces due to “the demographic and linguistic situation in the Estrie region”. [est] differs from that of the greater Montreal region. Bishop's saw Quebec's announcement as an “existential” threat. However, Prime Minister François Legault had previously closed the door to such an exception.
1/3 On November 6, McGill, Concordia and Bishop universities recognized the decline of French in Quebec, particularly in Montreal, and expressed a desire to do more to Frenchize students outside Quebec. #polqc
Here is our response to the three universities.??????? pic.twitter.com/Y8v67oNJG0— Pascale Déry (@PascaleDery) December 14, 2023
New conditions for financing
Minister Déry also announced that funding for McGill and Concordia universities would be linked to the achievement of French language learning goals and the “language practices” of these institutions.
From 2025 to 2026, 80% of new non-Quebec students in an English-language study program will be required to “reach level 5 orally by the end of their undergraduate studies.” This level (on a scale of up to 12) corresponds to the ability to communicate about current topics and describe the “essence” of a situation.
All non-Quebec students are taken into account: the 80% could therefore include learners who already knew French when they arrived at the university. “We are becoming more French, and that is a very good thing. […] But what we also want is to encourage and pressure universities to leave [recruter des étudiants] in more French-speaking areas,” explained Ms. Déry. She hopes to “change the face of Montreal.” According to the Déry Cabinet, 17.5% of foreign students at English-speaking universities are currently French-speaking. Among the students from other Canadian provinces, several hundred are French-speaking.
We are becoming more French, and that is a very good thing. […] But what we also want is to encourage and pressure universities to leave [recruter des étudiants] in more French-speaking areas.
According to McGill, reaching Level 5 for a non-French speaker requires 200 hours of coursework. According to Concordia, this goal is “unrealistic and unattainable.” The two universities had previously proposed Frenchizing 40% of their non-French speaking students. The 80 percent target is “unattainable” and will lead to an “unprecedented decline” in enrollment, “a decline that could jeopardize the future of McGill University,” the establishment warned.
McGill officials have torn the Déry reform to shreds without ruling out the possibility of turning to the courts or even opening a campus outside Quebec. They said they fear losing $94 million as a result of Quebec's new measures.
A softening for the ROC
Ms. Déry is also reviewing her position on pricing for Canadian students who are not residents of Quebec. In October, she announced her intention to increase tuition from $8,992 to $17,000. She now says the fees will rise to at least $12,000. The elected official says that “leaves $50 million on the table” but is capable of generating “a financial margin of 100 million” for the State of Quebec, especially because “the number of registrations is increasing.” French-speaking students from other Canadian provinces “will retain the rate of $9,000,” the minister assured.
For Fabrice Lebeau, first vice-president of McGill, Minister Déry's proposal amounts to an offer to pay $50,000 instead of $75,000 for a car that costs $25,000 in Ontario. “It’s still unrealistic in terms of competition,” he said. McGill said it has already seen a 20% decline in licensing applications from other Canadian provinces in a year.
The only remaining measure from the Oct. 13 announcement concerns foreign students, who must pay a minimum price of $20,000.
Of that amount, the government collects “a tax of about $5,000” per student, McGill noted. Concordia estimates that the share going to Quebec averages $5,500. Ms. Déry proposes that her department recover $3,000. The idea of this compensation system, according to the government, is to “rebalance the income of international students” in order to promote the growth of French-speaking universities.
To watch in the video