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english universities blast report that 80% of foreign students will need intermediate french by graduation
“if a government were trying to devise a plan to starve quebec’s english-language universities out of existence, it would look a lot like this,” qcgn says.
dec 13 2023
4 minute read
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the legault government is reportedly ready to significantly increase university tuition for students from other canadian provinces — and lower rates for francophone students from france, belgium, and maybe switzerland.
quebec on wednesday was also mulling over a possible new measure: requiring 80 per cent of international students to reach intermediate french proficiency by graduation, according to la presse .
mcgill and concordia universities say the tuition hike and the french-proficiency rules would be disastrous, driving away many students from other provinces and countries.
citing unnamed sources, la presse reported on what premier françois legault’s cabinet is considering behind closed doors.
most students from other provinces who come to quebec to study do so at one of three english universities: bishop’s, concordia or mcgill.
the government’s initial plan, announced in october , would have almost doubled the out-of-province rate, to $17,000, as of fall 2024. now, quebec is reportedly ready to set it at $12,000. that’s a 33-per-cent increase compared to current rates.
english universities and quebec’s largest employer’s group, the conseil du patronat, have said this will still be too high.
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they say a major tuition hike will scare off most students from other provinces, leading to a catastrophic drop in revenue. concordia and mcgill have already imposed hiring freezes and warn they may have to cut jobs. bishop’s, quebec’s smallest english university, has said it might not survive.
hoping to avert the tuition increase, bishop’s, concordia and mcgill have offered to improve the teaching of french to students from the rest of canada.
under their offer, at least 40 per cent of non-french-speaking students enrolled in undergraduate programs would reach intermediate proficiency in french by the time they graduate. the english universities said their francization efforts would be an alternative to the tuition hike.
instead, the government plans to do both — increase tuition while obliging the universities to francize students, la presse reported.
and, instead of 40 per cent, the province is reportedly considering an 80-per-cent target. the universities could face penalties if the target, to be in place by fall 2025, isn’t met.
this would be “disastrous” because many international students “have zero notion of french,” fabrice labeau, mcgill’s deputy provost of student life and learning, told the montreal gazette.
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for such a student to reach intermediate proficiency would require “240 hours of courses or something like 18 university credits – that’s more than a normal semester.”
labeau cited as an example a german student considering mcgill vs. the university of toronto. they would likely balk at mcgill because of the extra semester, he said.
“the fact that we speak french in montreal used to be an asset for recruitment,” he said. “we’re making it a punishment now.”
he added: “we’re slamming the door on the canadian students (with the tuition hike). now, if we add on top of that, the french requirement, we’re slamming the door on international students.”
concordia spokesperson fiona downey said an 80-per-cent french target is “inconceivable and unattainable.” that university has seen a 32-per-cent drop in applications from international students, compared to the same period last year.
in quebec city, higher education minister pascale déry told reporters the government is “going to come with an update very, very shortly.”
government officials later told the gazette that an announcement was expected on thursday.
déry was asked about complaints from mcgill and concordia that the government has given them the cold shoulder . both institutions said tuesday they haven’t been able to reach déry since late november.
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“we had a couple of discussions and i did speak to them obviously in those discussions,” déry responded.
la presse reported quebec may cut tuition by two-thirds for university students from france and belgium. they already pay much less than other international students when they study in quebec.
the province also wants to negotiate a deal that would give francophone students from switzerland the same tuition discount.
students from france and belgium currently pay the same tuition as those from the rest of canada — $8,992 — when studying for bachelor’s degrees in quebec. students from quebec pay $2,881.
under the new scenario, french and belgian students would pay $2,881, bringing the rate back down to where it was before 2015.
just over 16,000 students from the two countries were studying in quebec in 2021, a recent government report said. the vast majority are from france. quebec had a total of 48,400 international students in 2021.
legault has indicated he may exempt bishop’s from the tuition hike. that university will have “no comment until we get the official announcement from the minister,” a bishop’s spokesperson said.
a coalition of 40 anglophone groups denounced the tuition and french-proficiency changes.
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“if a government were trying to devise a plan to starve quebec’s english-language universities out of existence, it would look a lot like this,” said eva ludvig, president of the quebec community groups network.
“mcgill is a jewel in quebec’s crown — one of the world’s leading universities and consistently the best in canada,” she said. “instead of celebrating it and urging it on to greater success, the legault government wants to punish it — all in the name of protecting and promoting the french language against what it perceives to be a threat in downtown montreal.”
legault has said the tuition hike will protect the french language and boost french universities. he has said non-french-speaking students from the rest of canada are anglicizing montreal.
but the qcgn argues the plan will not add revenue to the french university system. and it says the government has produced “no evidence whatsoever that the presence of mcgill and concordia students in the downtown core contributes to the anglicization of the metropolis.”
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