Quebec judge invalidates tuition hike, French requirements for out-of-province university students

Matthew Lapierre · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 24, 2025 3:52 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

A Quebec Superior Court justice connected Thursday struck down a tuition hike for out-of-province Canadian assemblage students successful Quebec and the French connection requirements that the state had attempted to enforce connected them.

In his 82-page decision, Judge Éric Dufour awarded McGill and Concordia universities a partial victory.

He invalidated changes that the Higher Education Ministry made to its budgetary rules. Those changes raised tuition fees for out-of-province students by 33 per cent and said 80 per cent of them needed to larn French by graduation. The changes besides affected planetary students, mounting their minimum tuition fees astatine astir $20,000. 

Dufour struck down the rules that affected out-of-province Canadian students, saying that the ministry lacked information to enactment its claims that they weren't integrating into Quebec society. 

"The grounds shows that the ministry has perfectly nary information connected this subject, oregon lone fragile accusation to backmost it up," Dufour wrote. 

He besides said that the request that 80 per cent of out-of-province undergraduate students astatine English-language universities scope an intermediate level of proficiency successful French by graduation was "unreasonable fixed the near-certain impossibility of achievement." 

Dufour gave the ministry a nine-month timeline to revise the interest structure. For now, the existent rules volition stand, helium wrote. The connection requirements, however, are instantly invalidated, according to the ruling.

But helium did permission the planetary pupil interest increases unchanged. He said it was tenable that the authorities should privation to rebalance the backing that English and French universities receive. English universities thin to pull much planetary students, who wage higher tuition fees. The Higher Education Ministry has said the higher interest operation for planetary students would let them to redistribute wealth to Quebec's French universities. 

WATCH | Why did Quebec privation to rise tuition fees for out-of-province students? 

Quebec had initially doubled tuition fees for out-of-province students, aboriginal rolling that fig backmost to a 33 per cent hike but imposing the French connection requirement. 

The summation raised tuition fees for out-of-province Canadian students from astir $9,000 to $12,000. 

Premier François Legault had said the beingness of English-speaking students wounded the aboriginal of French successful Quebec. 

The heads of Quebec's English universities had criticized the move, saying the summation successful tuition fees made their programs unappealing to students crossed the country. Both McGill and Concordia had said the tuition hikes had led to a driblet successful enrolment, and caused them to tighten their budgets.

The request to thatch French to 80 per cent of their students was "totally unrealistic, some technically and academically," Deep Saini, McGill University's president and vice-chancellor, said successful December 2023, erstwhile the Higher Education Ministry announced the changes. 

McGill and Concordia filed a suit against the ministry, contesting the tuition changes, successful 2024. 

It was not instantly wide if the ministry would contention Dufour's ruling. Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry's bureau said they would instrumentality enactment of the judgment, but issued nary further comment. 

CBC has reached retired to McGill and Concordia.