Quebec to double university tuition in 2024 but Bishop's has already accepted students under current rates

There is more uncertainty surrounding Quebec's recent decision to double tuition for out-of-province university students in 2024 since Bishop's University has already admitted students for next fall.

Hours after meeting with the heads of Bishop's, McGill and Concordia universities on Monday, the province rejected their proposal to not follow through on plans to raise tuition for Canadian students from outside Quebec from about $9,000 to $17,000.

The universities promised to offer more French courses to undergraduate students if the current tuition rates would be maintained.

Quebec, however, said no.

On Monday, Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry said, "We're staying the course on our measures," and that offering more French-language courses was not enough to backtrack on the plan.

Marwah Rizqy, the Quebec Liberal Party's higher education critic, is sponsoring a petition at the national assembly to have the tuition hikes cancelled. The petition has collected more than 15,000 signatures.

In an interview with CTV News, she raised concerns about the province's plan.

"Bishop's already sent admission letters with the current price that we have. Bishop's has legal problems because if you already admitted people at $9,000, now you’re going to have to change the price to $17,000. It doesn’t make any sense," the MNA said.

Sarah Haddon, a special projects officer with the office of Bishop's principal, confirmed to CTV News that the university is trying to figure out what to do with the students who have already been admitted for fall 2024 under the current tuition rate.

"Minister Déry is aware of the situation and has indicated she would try to find some way to support. We have yet to determine a solution," she wrote in an email.

Meanwhile, McGill defended its proposal in a statement to CTV News on Tuesday, writing that it is still waiting to hear directly from Legault following the one-hour meeting on Monday.

"We believe that it is better to help students from outside Québec adopt the French culture and language when they arrive here, rather than exclude them from the outset through prohibitive tuition policies," reads the university's statement.

"Following our meeting, the Premier told the rectors the government would reflect on the proposal and get back to them soon. We look forward to hearing back from the Premier."

Despite the disagreement over the plan, Bishop's University, in Quebec's Eastern Townships, remains hopeful for a positive outcome, even though it has said that the plan puts its survival at risk.

"Specifically, they said we’d like to keep the conversation going so we’ll see where that goes. I don’t see a fully closed door so we’ve got to be optimistic," said Sébastien Lebel-Grenier, Bishop's principal.

"We think there’s a way out here where there’s a win-win instead of having a solution where there’s going to be a detrimental impact on Quebec."

Quebec's three English universities are poised to be disproportionately affected by the new measure as they receive a higher number of non-local students.

Though the CAQ insists the hikes are not an attack on English speakers, it did say it wants to protect the French language, particularly in Montreal, by making it more expensive for students who, according to the government, come to Quebec to study in English only to leave after graduation.

"The truth is [the CAQ] decided to attack English institutions since they took office back in 2018 and it doesn't stop," Rizqy said.

For one of Mcgill's unions, the proposal came much too late. The president of MUNACA, which represents non-academic staff, says the university has not kept up its promotion of French.

"The websites need to be updated and translated, course materials need to be translated. They haven’t done this, they’ve been dragging their feet. And now they come up with this offer that’s a little too late," said Thomas Chalmers in an interview.

McGill has said the tuition hikes will result in millions of dollars in losses and potentially hundreds of people losing their jobs.

"This is something that’s causing a lot of anxiety because they want to cut jobs where there is a lot of overwork and under staffing as it is," added MUNACA's vice-president of communications, Simon Deverson.

While Bishop's is worried about its survival, Quebec says a solution will be worked out specifically for that institution, though no details have been released.

"We’re going to take the premier at his word. He was fairly clear as was minister Dery that they understand that Bishops is not a threat to the French language and a specific solution has to be crafted to take into account this reality," Lebel-Grenier said.

Despite not backing down, Quebec says discussions with English universities will continue.