Quebec's English-language universities say they will ensure almost half of their non-French speaking students graduate with intermediate French if the provincial government scraps a plan to double tuition for students from other provinces. Quebec Premier François Legault, centre, is flanked by Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry, left, and HEC chair Helene Desmarais in Montreal, on Sept. 15.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Quebec’s anglophone university leaders pledged to better integrate future graduates into Quebec society with a range of new measures, including a mandatory French-language course for students from outside the province, as they tried to dissuade the provincial government from pursuing a proposed tuition hike for students from the rest of Canada.
McGill principal Deep Saini, Concordia president Graham Carr and Bishop’s principal Sébastien Lebel-Grenier made their pitch in a meeting with Premier François Legault and Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry in Montreal on Monday.
The university leaders made a number of suggestions to address the government’s concern that English-speaking students from outside Quebec are contributing to the decline of the French language, particularly in Montreal.
The three universities said they would make a French-language class mandatory for non-Quebec residents, offer more work placements in the regions outside Montreal, and create programs to teach students about Quebec culture and help them integrate and settle in the province.
“We believe that we’ve made a historic proposal that the three anglophone universities would work with the government of Quebec to focus on doing even more than we’re already doing to protect and promote the French language in Quebec,” Dr. Carr said in an interview.
But the government said it remains firm that Quebec taxpayers should not subsidize lower fees for students from outside the province.
Ms. Déry said the government was pleased that the heads of the English-language universities recognized that French is in decline in Quebec, but she said that the government was sticking to its principles.
“It’s not up to Quebec taxpayers to finance the training of thousands of Canadian students from outside Quebec,” she said, referring to the government’s claim that the current $9,000 tuition is about half of what it costs the province to educate a university student.
The anglophone universities have been outspoken about what they describe as the potentially devastating financial consequences of the government’s planned changes to tuition fees, announced in mid-October.
The government has said tuition fees for Canadian students from outside Quebec will nearly double, from about $9,000 a year to about $17,000. It also intends to increase the government clawback on international students’ fees, which have been a lucrative source of funding for the three English universities. The funds recouped by the province would be redistributed among the province’s other universities.
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The leadership of several francophone schools have also critiqued the tuition policy, saying it’s not the way to address underfunding in the postsecondary system and citing the importance of maintaining a stance of openness to attract talent to Quebec.
Under the proposed change, McGill and Concordia are projected to lose combined revenue of nearly $100-million within four years, while it would threaten Bishop’s very existence, the three universities said in a policy proposal released Monday.
The government said it intends to find a solution tailored to Bishop’s situation. The school in Lennoxville, Que., is the only one of the three institutions located outside Montreal, which has been the focus of the government’s concerns about the English language.
In their policy proposal, the universities said they would make it their goal to ensure that at least 40 per cent of non-French-speaking students enrolled in undergraduate programs would reach a high level of fluency as measured on language tests.
They also warned that Quebec, as the first province to propose significant additional costs for out-of-province students, would open itself to retaliatory measures that could hinder Quebec students who want to study in other provinces, and harm Quebec’s capacity for innovation.
“We’re hoping that today we’ve put an offer on the table, which will really open the door to a constructive conversation about what we can do better together to support French in Quebec,” Dr. Carr said. “The ball is in the Premier and the government’s court.”
But Ms. Déry only mentioned next steps regarding Bishop’s University.
“We will continue our discussions with the anglophone universities and find a solution specific to the reality of Bishop’s,” she said.
Joe Friesen