Out of province students attending Quebec universities will face rapid tuition increases

Tuition for out-of-province students to Quebec could rise by 33% due to a proposal by the Quebec government. This would affect both Concordia University and McGill University students – both located in Montreal. This hike will increase tuitions from $9,000 to $12,000. 

Quebec initally imposed an increase of $17,000, but recently decreased it to $12,000. Instead of paying $17,000, they will require out of province students to learn French. The French-language requirement will come into effect for new students beginning their studies in the 2025-26 academic year. For out of province students coming to Quebec next fall during the 2024-25 academic year, they will have to pay a minimum of $12,000 in tuition, but will not be required to learn French.

Local 514 spoke with Liam Gaither, Vice President of External Affairs at the Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU) about how the SSMU is fighting these tuition hikes. 

Gaither says the current forms of organizing at McGill includes building popular support for a campaign against the tuition hikes.

"We've taken a number of different actions and sort of tried to push in different ways," he said. "At SMU, we put together a volunteer mobilization committee so any student can join and participate in the mobilizing on campus. Our objective is to try to sort of help motivate department and faculty associations to show their power as associations, as student unions go on strike."

He said SSMU has been doing a lot sharing resources and promoting education on the tuition hikes to get students informed and empower them to take action with "different tactics at their disposal," said Gaither. "I've been using the idea of giving you every tool in the toolbox to try and take different actions on a topic. And that's continuing."