A Quebec Superior Court judge has overturned a university tuition hike for out-of-province students that the government introduced to reduce the number of English-speaking students in the province.
The decision, released Thursday, is a partial victory for Montreal’s two English-language universities, McGill and Concordia, which have said the Quebec government’s recent changes caused a drop in enrolment.
Justice Éric Dufour found the government’s 2023 decision to increase out-of-province tuition by $3,000—33 percent—was unreasonable and “not justified by existing and convincing data.”
The government had argued the fee increase was necessary to protect the French language in Quebec. Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry had also said the hike was justified because most out-of-province students leave Quebec.
But Dufour found the government could provide no statistics about the retention of out-of-province students. “Increased protection of the French language remains fundamental, especially considering the linguistic context in which Quebec finds itself, a continent populated predominantly by Anglo-Saxons,” he wrote.
“But this vigilant protection does not justify the creation of policies and the making of decisions … based on erroneous or absent data.”
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He ruled that the fee hike can remain in place for up to nine months until the government revises its tuition plan.
A spokesperson for Déry said the minister would not comment on the decision before reviewing it fully.
The decision also overturns a new requirement that 80 percent of out-of-province undergraduate students at English-language universities reach an intermediate level of proficiency in French by the time they graduate. That rule was to come into effect this fall.
Dufour found that threshold is unreasonable because of the “almost certain impossibility” that the universities would be able to meet the target. He noted that the universities had suggested a less ambitious target of 40 percent.
In his decision, the judge also pointed to inconsistencies in the government’s logic, suggesting that if the minister believes out-of-province students don’t stay in Quebec after graduation, then it doesn’t make sense to require them to become proficient in French.
However, Dufour upheld the Quebec government’s decision to set minimum tuition for international students at around $20,000 and to claw back a large portion of the fees from English institutions to redistribute them to French-language universities.
McGill and Concordia challenged the changes in court last year, arguing in part that they violated the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights. But the judge decided it wasn’t necessary to rule on the constitutional arguments, since the case could be resolved under administrative law.
In a statement, Concordia president and vice-chancellor Graham Carr said he found the decision reassuring. “These are very difficult times for higher education in Quebec and around the world,” he said. “My hope is that today’s decision can serve as a catalyst for the government and our entire university sector to hit reset.”
McGill did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
