English-language universities in Quebec are bracing for the potential financial fallout of the province’s decision to nearly double tuition for out-of-province students.
At McGill University in Montreal, the news has already had an impact as administrators measure the potential loss of revenue if students from outside Quebec opt to go elsewhere rather than pay the steep new fees.
It has led the university to postpone the announcement of a $50-million investment in programs designed to help students, faculty, and staff, develop French-language skills and “integrate more fully into Quebec society,” the school said in a statement Oct. 19.
In a letter addressed to the McGill community Oct. 16, Principal Deep Saini warned of “serious consequences” for the university. He asked “those responsible for spending to be prudent” while administrators study the possible effects of the tuition increase—a roughly $8,000 hike for Canadian students from outside the province.
On Oct. 13, Quebec announced that tuition for undergraduate students from other provinces would rise to about $17,000 from $8,992, starting next fall. Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry also said the government would charge universities $20,000 for each international student they recruit.
The decision is expected to mostly affect the province’s three English-language universities—McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s—which welcome more non-Quebecers than French schools. Mr. Saini warned the tuition hike could deter prospective McGill students from other provinces and territories, who currently make up 20 percent of the student body.
Premier François Legault has defended the move, insisting Quebec taxpayers should not have to subsidize students from other provinces and saying the influx of anglophone students “threatens the survival of the French language.”
Bishop’s University Principal Sébastien Lebel-Grenier says the financial impact of the tuition increase could be “catastrophic” for his Sherbrooke-Que. school, where almost 30 percent of students come from other provinces.
“We’re looking down a potential loss of one-fourth of our revenue,” Mr. Lebel-Grenier said in a phone interview. “For a university, that’s not something you can manage, such a significant change overnight.”
He said the school hopes to talk with the Quebec government to identify an arrangement that “will allow Bishop’s to carry on,” but warned of “difficult if not impossible choices,” including spending cuts, if the province implements the hike as planned.
“We’re already running on paper-thin margins and we’re being extremely careful with our spending,” he added. “It’s hard to imagine how we could cut back.”
