Higher education minister may appeal tuition fees for students outside Quebec
'We're currently evaluating all the options. There is still a 30-day deadline for both parties to appeal,' the minister said at a news briefing on Tuesday at the National Assembly.
Last week's ruling was a partial victory for Montreal's two English-language universities, McGill and Concordia, which had claimed that the Quebec government's recent changes had led to a drop in enrolments.
Judge Éric Dufour said the government's 2023 decision to increase tuition fees for Canadian students outside Quebec by $3,000 (33 per cent) was unreasonable and 'not justified by existing and convincing data.'
'We have to ask ourselves the question: should Quebec taxpayers be paying a high price for the education of Canadian students outside Quebec?' the minister said.
The ruling states that the government has nine months to comply.
The ruling also overturns a new requirement that 80 per cent of undergraduate students outside Quebec enrolled in English-language universities achieve an intermediate level of proficiency in French by the time they graduate.
This rule was due to come into force this autumn.
'However, the judge ruled in our favour, especially when it came to French. We are told that it is the minister's responsibility to protect the French language. So that objective will be maintained. For me, it's very important that the students we bring to Quebec are able to master French,' said Déry.
Dufour did, however, confirm the Quebec government's decision to set minimum tuition fees for international students at around $20,000 and to recover a large part of the money from English-language institutions and redistribute it to French-language universities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 29, 2025.
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