Quebec court rules against Concordia University’s attempt to halt tuition hike

MONTREAL — A Quebec Superior Court judge has rejected Concordia University’s request to delay a controversial tuition hike for out-of-province and international students.

Judge Éric Dufour ruled on July 12 that suspending tuition increases would disrupt the Quebec government’s funding plan for the province’s universities. Concordia argued for a stay until the legal challenge to the tuition changes can be heard.

Quebec’s two largest English-language universities are grappling with tuition fee hikes announced last fall by the Quebec government as a measure to protect the French language. They argue the change is discriminatory and will affect enrollment.

Concordia showed it would face “serious or irreparable injury” from the new rules, Dufour wrote, but that wasn’t enough to justify suspending the trip.

A Concordia spokesman said the suspension request was “just a step in the process and we look forward to our arguments being heard on the merits”.

Starting this fall, out-of-province students at Quebec universities will pay 33 percent more in tuition, or about $12,000 a year. The tuition fee for international students will be at least $20,000.

Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry unveiled the changes last October, saying they were necessary to prevent the decline of the French language in Quebec. The government has promised to redistribute the extra funds to French-language universities, which receive fewer out-of-province and international students.

The government originally planned to double out-of-province tuition fees to $17,000. In December, Déry reduced the increase to $12,000, but added a requirement that 80 percent of out-of-province and international students would have to learn French.

Concordia and McGill University argue that the tuition fee hike constitutes discrimination under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Concordia says it anticipates 12 percent less enrollment and a $21 million loss in funding for the 2024-25 school year.

The university told the court that the loss of out-of-province and international students would affect the university’s “financial stability and its academic development, to the detriment of Quebec’s English-speaking community.”

But the Quebec government contested that Section 15 of the Charter did not protect people from discrimination based on language. The attorney general argued that delaying the tuition hike would require “a reevaluation of the budget rules for the entire university network,” according to the decision.

Concordia and McGill launched separate lawsuits to challenge the tuition hike. Their arguments will be heard in court this fall.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 18, 2024.

The Canadian Press