French students exempt from an increase in tuition fees in Quebec

Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press “Gabriel [Attal, left] told me that there are ten times more French people who come to study in Quebec than Quebecers who go to study in France. As I told him, that also means that it costs us more to offer these reduced rates,” explained François Legault.

There are ten times more French people who come to study in Quebec than the reverse, and we must rebalance this situation to “get value for our money”, pleaded Friday the Prime Minister, François Legault, on the sidelines of the renewal of a agreement on student mobility.

“It’s important to keep this tradition,” declared the head of the Quebec government about the preferential rates offered on both sides of the Atlantic as part of the France agreement -Québec in education, concluded in 1965.

“Gabriel told me that there are ten times more French people who come to study in Quebec than Quebecers who go to study in France. As I told him, that also means that it costs us more to offer these reduced rates. So, to get value for our money, we are going to work very hard to ensure that more Quebecers go to study in France,” said Mr. Legault.

The visit of the French Prime Minister to Quebec made it possible to renew the agreement on student mobility at the university level.

The fees charged to French students were until now modeled on those paid by Canadians not resident in Quebec. However, these will be increased from the start of the school year due to the increase announced in October by the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry.

The new version of the agreement, signed on Friday for a period of five years, exempts French students from this increase.

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Rather than paying $12,000 per year, as Canadians from outside Quebec will do, the French will continue to pay tuition fees of around $9,000 for their first university cycle. In the second and third cycles, they will pay the same fees as Quebec students, as before.

As for Quebecers who enroll at university in France, they will be subject to the same fee schedule as the French, from the first cycle.

Studies in French and English

The tuition fees charged to French undergraduate students are equivalent to those charged to French-speaking students from other Canadian provinces when they come to study in French-speaking universities in Quebec.

In the case of French students however, the $9,000 tuition fee also provides access to English-speaking universities. This is a way of attracting more French speakers to these establishments, argues the Déry cabinet.

“These opportunities are rich for all the students who take advantage of them and allow ideas to circulate, minds to open and to continue to maintain the historical bridges that unite us as French-speaking societies,” said said the Minister of Higher Education, welcoming “very good news”.

The agreement between France and Quebec on student mobility grants an exception to the French, who pay much lower tuition fees than other international students. Under the overhaul announced by Minister Pascale Déry, they will have to pay a floor price of $20,000 from the start of the school year.

In 2022-2023, 20,000 of the 70,000 international students in Quebec were French.

A special status has been granted to students from France since 1965. This agreement has experienced ups and downs, notably in 2015, when the government of Philippe Couillard almost tripled the tuition fees of French students, the increasing from $2300 to $6650.