Out-of-province students will now have to pay $12K to study in Quebec

The Quebec government has officially revealed how much out-of-province students will have to pay if they want to study in the province.

In a letter sent to the rectors of Quebec’s three English-language universities, McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s, Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry confirmed that tuition fees for students from other Canadian provinces will go up from $9,000 to a minimum of $12,000 per year.

The original proposal was an increase to $17,000.

According to the letter, Bishop’s, located in Sherbrooke, Que., will be allowed to accept a fixed number of out-of-province students at a rate of $9,000 “for a total of 825 fee exclusions.”

The funds raised by the measures will be used to increase funding for French-language universities.

The Quebec government is also demanding that English-language universities commit to developing the French-language skills of their students.

“You have acknowledged the decline of French in Quebec, particularly in Montreal,” said Déry in the letter, adding “there is an urgent need to act when it comes to the francization of Canadian and international students.”

Quebec says it wants the institutions to ensure that, from 2025-2026, “80 per cent of new non-Quebec students enrolled in an English-language program reach level five on the Quebec scale of French-language proficiency by the end of their undergraduate degree program.”

“The majority of them do not stay in Quebec after their studies,” Déry notes in the letter.

Part of the funding for non-Quebec students by the government will be conditional on reaching this target.

Funding for Bishop’s University “will not be conditional on achieving this target.”