By Olivia Norby – Senior Copy Editor

On Friday, Oct. 13, Quebec announced that they would be increasing the price of university tuition for all out-of-province students and international students, with an exception for students from France or Belgium and those in research-based graduate programs. For out-of-province Canadians, the minimum price of tuition in Quebec will jump from $8,992 to $17,000, doubling in price. For international students, the Quebec government will be charging universities $20,000 for every student they recruit, so the financial impact largely affects universities rather than international students. These changes are only set to affect new incoming students starting in the 2024 Fall semester. This could have a dire impact on the three anglophone universities in Quebec: Concordia, McGill and Bishop’s. Out-of-province and international students play a huge role in the diversity and atmosphere at these three universities, and raising tuition prices could potentially have these universities losing a significant proportion of their students.

Bishop’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor Sébastien Lebel-Grenier told the Montreal Gazette that “If studying at Bishop’s is priced out of range for Canadian out-of-province students, that could mean that, theoretically, we could lose up to 30 percent of our student body.” 

This policy is among many new measures, being implemented by Francois Legault and his party, in an attempt to increase French language and culture. Bishop’s SRC president, Sophia Stacey, posted a video to the SRC’s Instagram page, informing students of the changes in tuition prices and debunking myths associated with this news. With one myth being that Bishop’s out-of-province and international students are not welcome in Quebec, she goes on to state: “I want our out-of-province and international students to know that you’re a valued and cherished member of this community. You bring a cultural richness to Bishop’s that the unaffordable increases in tuition could deteriorate in the years to come.” 

In an interview with The Campus, Principal Lebel-Grenier stated: “I do see the fact that the government has been in communication with me the last few days on a very regular basis as evidence that they are now starting to understand the scope and impact of these measures as they relate to us.” He later went on to say, “I don’t like to sugarcoat things. This is very serious. This, as it is proposed, would have really a destructive impact on Bishop’s, and I think I’ve got to acknowledge this.” He expressed that fundamentally, this was about Bishop’s identity as an institution that welcomes people from all over. “I don’t want students to be afraid or feel that this is an attack on them. We are working as a community to hopefully reverse this policy or at least minimize its impacts. We’ve got to stand tall as a community. We are fighting the right fight, and we’ve got to stand together.”