The Canadian province of Quebec is introducing a plan that will hike tuition fees and mandate French proficiency for its out-of-province university students.
It has been met with pushback from Quebec’s three English-language universities, who feel the changes are “a targeted attack” against them.
The province has defended the plan, saying it will help preserve its French language.
The changes will take effect next year.
In a letter published on Thursday, Quebec’s higher education minister Pascale Déry said tuition for out-of-province students would increase from C$9,000 ($6,700; £5,200) to C$12,000 a year.
The 33% rise is smaller than what the province had originally proposed in October, which was to double the tuition fees for students from the rest of Canada. The average tuition for domestic students in Quebec is around $6,500.
The province will also require that 80% of students from outside Quebec reach an intermediate level of French by the time they graduate, and universities would face financial penalties if that target is not met.
Universities will also see a larger chunk of international student fees going directly to the province instead of their operating budget. Those funds would then be redistributed to French-speaking universities.
In the letter, Ms Déry told Quebec’s three English-language universities – McGill and Concordia in Montreal, and Bishop’s in Sherbrooke – that the changes were designed to balance funding received by English and French universities in the province.
She said it would also mean Quebec would spend less money subsidising students from the rest of Canada and help preserve the French language.
McGill University’s President Deep Saini called the plan a “targeted attack” against Quebec’s three English-language universities.
He said it was “incoherent” and based on “impressions and emotions, rather than evidence-based decision-making”.
Mr Saini added his university had not ruled out moves like opening another campus outside of Quebec or filing a potential lawsuit.
Concordia University President Graham Carr told the Montreal Gazette that he believed the plan would lead to a drop in the number of students, and would damage Quebec’s reputation.
Both universities said that applications are already down about 20%, and that the changes could cost them C$150m annually. McGill University added it may have to cut up to 700 jobs.
The overhaul to higher education in Quebec is part of a range of policies aimed at preserving the province’s French heritage and language, which Quebec has long-sought to protect as the French language declines in the rest of Canada.
In June, Quebec passed a law which established the language as the sole official and common language in Quebec.
source : BBC photo:McGill University
