Judge rules Quebec's 33% tuition hike for out-of-province students is ‘unreasonable'
Concordia and McGill universities have partially won their legal challenge to Quebec's decision to sharply increase tuition for out‑of‑province students and impose new French‑language proficiency requirements on non‑Quebec applicants.
The two universities filed their suit in February 2024, arguing the Coalition Avenir Québec government's actions contravened the Quebec and Canadian charters of rights.
The Legault government said the measures would protect the French language and reduce the number of non-French-speaking students in Quebec.
In a decision handed down Thursday, Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Dufour ruled that some of the government's moves were 'unreasonable.'
He invalidated the tuition hike for students from other provinces, but gave the government nine months to revise the fee structure.
Starting in fall 2024, Quebec increased tuition for out-of-province students by 33 per cent, making it $12,000, up from $9,000. Quebec students pay about $3,000.
The judge also invalidated, effective immediately, the French proficiency rules that Quebec had imposed.
Quebec had announced that, starting in fall 2025, 80 per cent of newly enrolled non-Quebec undergraduate students in English universities must attain an intermediate-level oral proficiency in French by graduation.
McGill and Concordia would face financial penalties if they did not meet the target.
When his government announced the changes in 2023, Premier François Legault said it was part of a plan to 'reduce the number of anglophone students' in Quebec.
He said English-speaking students from other provinces 'threaten the survival of French.'
This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 1:43 PM.
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