Opinion: Let's break the myths about Quebec's tuition hikes

Article content material

Over the previous two weeks, we’ve heard numerous figures, arguments and counter-arguments, myths and misguided theories, about tuition charges for out-of-province and worldwide college students. If nothing else, the avalanche of opinions on college funding demonstrates one factor: It’s a posh situation that deserves in-depth dialogue. 

Oversimplifications abound however the scenario is extra nuanced.  

Article content material

Article content material

Let’s begin with Ontario college students who “examine at a reduction” right here, whereas a Quebecer in Ontario pays $35,000 or extra. With this instance, an exception is introduced because the rule. A couple of medical, regulation and enterprise applications in a single province had been chosen and in contrast with these in Quebec.

In reality, the typical tuition in Canada is $7,500 per 12 months, in contrast with $9,000 in Quebec for non-resident Canadian college students. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of out-of-province college students examine within the humanities, pure sciences and superb arts. In these disciplines, it already prices $3,000 extra for a scholar from Vancouver or Toronto.

It has additionally been extensively claimed that the deregulation of charges for worldwide college students has disproportionately benefited English-speaking universities, leaving French-speaking establishments underfunded. Right here too, the fact is extra advanced.  

Sure, the present framework — created by the federal government in 2018 — has generated an imbalance. However Concordia, which since its inception has been a college based mostly on guaranteeing entry to greater training, has by no means been wealthy. What’s extra, worldwide college students, besides these from France and Belgium who profit from an exemption, are self-financing. The federal government — and due to this fact the Quebec taxpayer — doesn’t subsidize them in undergraduate {and professional} grasp’s applications.  

Article content material

Article content material

For the opposite college students who’re backed, the federal government generates income from these enrolments in addition to from these of scholars from different provinces. English-language universities have returned greater than $300 million to the federal government since 2019 thanks to those enrolments. The funds are then redistributed all through the Quebec college community, whereas just some universities assume the prices of recruiting and supporting these college students. These revenues would lower with the introduced measures.  

To finish the image, 69.2 per cent of revenues at our French universities come from authorities grants, in contrast with 49.4 per cent at our English universities. These grants guarantee larger funding predictability.  

On financing for infrastructure tasks, a major a part of this Quebec funding will go to McGill this 12 months for the Royal Victoria challenge. That is circumstantial. A couple of years in the past, Université de Montréal would have obtained essentially the most funding for its MIL campus or HEC with its downtown campus.  

Main tasks usually are not funded on a linguistic foundation, however in line with their relevance and to permit the federal government to not need to make all investments in the identical fiscal 12 months. This 12 months, Concordia will obtain $36 million by way of the Plan québécois des infrastructures for renovations. 

Article content material

Which brings me to the much-used time period “English-speaking universities” that presents our establishments as a monolithic block. But we’re all very totally different, from the applications we provide to the scholar populations we host. At Concordia, for instance, at the least 54 per cent of worldwide college students keep in Quebec after commencement. Extra essential, 70 per cent of our college students are from Quebec. 

We have to have a dialogue that takes all these complexities under consideration — revenues, subsidies, bills and challenges going through universities, in addition to the contributions every of us makes to a information ecosystem essential to Quebec’s future.  

Let’s keep away from simplistic formulation that gained’t assist us sort out the true downside: the underfunding of your entire college community, which has been denounced for years. Sadly, the federal government’s measures are merely a redistribution of current funds, which will definitely decline additional with the lack of college students from outdoors Quebec. 

Above all, let’s agree that universities are greater than only a ledger for including or subtracting numbers, columns of bills or revenues. Let’s shield their core missions of selling information, innovation and expertise, in addition to their contributions to Quebec society and its economic system.

Graham Carr is president of Concordia College.

Article content material

Article content material