Tuition hikes at McGill and Concordia “are a direct attack on Montreal,” says Plante

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The Legault government's decision to raise tuition at Concordia and McGill universities by 33 per cent for out-of-province students is a direct attack on Montreal, Mayor Valérie Plante said Wednesday.

He invited the province to listen to one of its advisory committees, which opposed the measure.

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Plante's comments come as the two universities grapple with a significant drop in applications due to rising tuition fees.

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“We see this as a direct attack on Montreal and it's not fair,” he told reporters, still reeling from criticism. “If Bishop doesn't have that rule anymore, why does Montreal have it?”

Quebec granted Bishop Sherbrooke, the smallest of the province's three English universities, a partial exemption allowing 825 students to pay the old rate.

The tuition hike, which affects only McGill and Concordia, is part of an effort by the Coalition Avenir Quebec government to increase funding for French universities and reduce the number of non-French speakers at post-secondary institutions in Montreal.

Prime Minister Francois Legault said the bishop was largely removed because the French in Sherbrooke were not a threat.

Plante said he agreed that “supporting French post-secondary institutions” is important, “but should we penalize English-speaking universities for this?” My answer: No thank you.'

Plante said Montreal's international reputation and its local economy are at stake. McGill and Concordia “contribute directly to the economic vitality of our downtown core,” he said. Most universities are located in the city center.

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Plante's comments came days after the Gazette revealed that a government-appointed advisory committee had recommended Quebec scrap the plan.

The Comité consultatif sur l'accessibilité fiancière aux études questioned how the government came up with a new rate of $12,000 a year for out-of-province students (up from $8,992). It said the hike “seems unjustified and threatens access to quality education and deprives society of potential talent”.

Higher Education Minister Pascal Dery's office says it is ignoring the advice because it was delivered four days after the minister's deadline. Deri contacted the committee on December 15 and asked for a response by January 15. The report was submitted on January 19.

The non-binding committee is made up of several senior officials from French-language universities and CEGEP.

The deadline came despite the fact that Catherine Gretas, a senior bureaucrat focused on student financial aid, sits on the committee as a non-voting member, an official at the Department of Leather.

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Plante noted that the committee was given its mandate just before the Christmas and New Year holidays.

“It's not easy to invite everyone at this stage,” he said. “So I think the Quebec government needs to open up and say we can accept the report and respond to the report.”

McGill and Concordia say the tuition hike, along with changes in funding for international students, could bring them tens of millions of dollars a year.

McGill's application deadline for the fall 2024 semester was February 1.

Applications from the rest of Canada are down 22 percent from previous years, and international students are down seven percent, the school's vice provost Fabrice Labeau said in an interview.

“I'm happy to say that even though we had a smaller pool, it was a very high quality applicant pool,” he said.

It's too early to tell if enrollment will decline, he added. This will depend on how many people take up offers in the coming months and how many decide to drop out over the summer.

“We're still in a bit of uncertainty,” Labeau said.

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McGill has not raised tuition fees for international students. Labo attributed the decline in applications from this group to the confusion and uncertainty created by the CAQ government.

Many potential foreign students thought their rates would double, while others balked at the message sent by the government: students who don't speak French “are not welcome in Quebec,” Labeau said.

“You can imagine that this has had a chilling effect on a lot of enthusiasm for applying to McGill,” he said.

Although international students will not see a tuition increase, Quebec has decided to refund every international student $5,000 starting in the fall, Labeau said. According to him, the government has not explained how this money will be distributed.

At Concordia, the March 1 application deadline dropped 27 percent for remaining Canadian students and 10 percent for international students, Vannina Maestracci said.

McGill and Concordia have established scholarships for some students from the rest of Canada that could offset the hike.

In Quebec City, reporters asked Dery about the drop in applications at Concordia and McGill. He said he would wait to see the number of students enrolled in the schools before commenting.

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