International students in six academic departments across the province may face tuition fee hikes following the Quebec government's decision to deregulate International Student Fees. As of September 11, international students in engineering, management, pure sciences, mathematics, computer science, and law will be affected.
Since Quebec's defreeze of tuition fees in 2007, the provincial government has been trying to shift the financial burden for funding education from the public treasury to universities. Now the shift is targeting international students.
Devin Alfaro, the Students' Society's vice-president external, expects deregulation to have an effect on the administration's enrollment tactics, increasing available spots in more lucrative departments.
"Because of the possibility of the differential increase in [international] tuition fees across disciplines, universities would aim to provide more enrollment incentives to faculties that can bring in more revenue, such as the Faculty of Engineering," Alfaro said.
The McGill administration has yet to decide on the extent of the tuition increase for international students.
However Morton Mendelson, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning), pointed to McGill's financial aid program as a way of ensuring that international students do not pick up an unfair share of the tuition increase.
"The University is committed to allocating 30 per cent of net increases in tuition to financial aid, which applies here," Mendelson told the Tribune in an email. "International students are eligible for financial aid at McGill."
The possible increase in international tuition has reignited the campus debate on the extent government should fund education.
One argument is that students should bear the brunt of these costs because they directly benefit from the education they receive. Alfaro sees things differently, however.
"Education has always been a public and social good. It's the society which ultimately reaps the benefit of having an educated workforce," Alfaro said.
While several European countries provide free education from the primary to tertiary level, North American universities seem to be going in the opposite direction with respect to tuition fees. David Paradis, president of the Quebec Federation of University Students (FEUQ), finds this troubling.
"If this trend [to increase tuition] continues, it's likely that more and more children from families on the lower side of the economic strata wouldn't be able to attend universities and thus, widening the literacy gap between higherincome and lower income families," he said.
Paradis is also worried that the complete deregulation of international student fees would affect Quebec's English-language universities the most.
"McGill and Concordia take in more international students than any other French universities, so naturally they would be the ones to suffer the bigger blow," Paradis said.
The tuition hike, Paradis added, would have a larger impact on urban universities as they often have a larger pool of resources dedicated to recruiting international students.
Paradis said that FEUQ will cooperate with international student groups from different universities to campaign against the provincial government's deregulation directive.
"There are 20,000 students out there who will not agree to this. It has to be stopped," Paradis said.
FEUQ will hold a press conference this week demanding an immediate repeal of the deregulation.
In addition, SSMU is considering creating a petition available to international students and attending a rally in Quebec City on October 17.
-Additional reporting by James Gilman
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Andrew Work, B.Sc. 94 (Hong Kong)
posted 9/23/08 @ 2:56 AM EST
Those who benefit should pay. There is no 'public good.'
The European model? In fact, the Europeans are moving away from the free university model because they have finaly recognised who it caters to and what it produces: sub-standard education to slacker adults who live off the state doing undergraduate programs well into their 30's. (Continued…)
Altschuler Deininger
posted 4/19/09 @ 2:19 AM EST
Hello! I am glad that I'v joined your community! See ya!
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