Tuition Hikes

Out-of-province student faces tuition increase and no support

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Alison Prissinotti’s tuition increased significantly after she changed programs. Photo Alice Martin

Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

Lack of clear communication from the administration leaves out-of-province student in the dark

Alison Prissinotti was accepted to Concordia University to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology for the 2023-24 academic year. 

As a student from British Columbia, she was part of the last cohort of out-of-province students accepted before the implementation of the Quebec government’s tuition hikes in September 2024. 

At the start of the Fall 2024 semester, the tuition for out-of-province students at English universities in the province increased from $8,992 to $12,000, with some exceptions given to students attending Bishop’s University.  

Students like Prissinotti did not have to pay the increased rate as they were accepted into their program before the implementation of the tuition hikes. 

However, out-of-province students choosing to pursue a degree transfer are subject to the tuition increase. 

When Prissinotti sought to change her degree from anthropology to print media, it had not yet been officially confirmed that changing programs would increase her tuition. When she got accepted into the program in May 2024, she had not yet received a clear answer from the university and decided to accept her admission offer.

“I did [accept] because they still hadn’t said anything and I figured by the time it’s summer and people have already received admission to certain universities that they wouldn’t be changing any tuition that late-notice,” Prissinotti said.

Over the Winter 2024 semester, she sent emails to departments such as academic advising and the Birks Student Service Centre looking for answers for whether she could change her program without her tuition increasing.   

She was informed that a change in program may affect her tuition, but that the government had not yet clarified with Concordia all the details of the tuition increase. At the start of June, the Birks centre told Prissinotti to keep an eye out on the Concordia website for any changes. 

According to web archives, information clarifying that students pursuing a degree transfer would be subject to a tuition increase was not made public on the Concordia website before Aug. 18, 2024, at the earliest. This update was only published two weeks before the start of the fall semester.

“We regret the confusion that some out-of-province students have had to face due to the new tuition policy,” Concordia spokesperson Julie Fortier said in an email to The Link. “The government unfortunately only confirmed details concerning students switching programs on August 2, 2024.” 

Fortier added that, due to lack of clear government directives, Concordia warned students that changing programs may result in higher tuition fees as soon as the new measures were announced.

Prissinotti is financially responsible for her education and relies on student loans from the government to cover the cost of her tuition. As such, she claims she was not given a clear answer from the university about the tuition increase before receiving a much higher amount in student loans than she usually does.

“I was not notified by anybody, I never received any email about it,” Prissinotti said. “I was notified by my student loans, which was ridiculous and I feel like I deserved better.”

She said she asked to go back into her old program but was informed that her tuition would increase no matter what. 

“I couldn’t afford the tuition to begin with before it was increased, never mind now,” Prissinotti said. “And so, if I can’t get enough external funding for next year, I’m gonna have to leave school and I don’t want to do that.”

Prissinotti said she felt angry and abandoned, and like the university was not listening to her needs.

“I feel like I’ve actually built a community here in Montreal and I love my life here and I love being in school. Truly all I want to do is be in school and do this program,” Prissinotti said. “It felt like something I’d worked really hard for […] had been taken away from me.”

After the tuition hikes were announced, Concordia implemented funding opportunities for out-of-province students to help lessen the financial strain of the increase in tuition fees. 

As it was too late for her to apply to any other universities, Prissinotti chose to stay at Concordia and try to apply for awards and bursaries to help her pay for tuition. Since her tuition increased, she said she is spending hours every week emailing people and applying to different grants and bursaries. 

“It’s kind of a part-time job, honestly,” Prissinotti said. “My break from doing homework is researching bursaries.”

She had an in-person meeting at the Ombuds Office in September 2024 for help on applying to scholarships and awards. On Sept. 15, she received confirmation from an ombudsperson that they will be looking into her file.

“I will look into the scholarships available through Financial Aid for new students and see what I can find out regarding eligibility for people in your situation,” the ombudsperson said in the email. 

Prissinotti exchanged a few more emails with the Ombuds Office and, on Jan. 20, 2025, she asked if it would be possible to provide an estimated end date to the investigation as the results will determine whether or not she needs to start applying to other universities. 

She was told that the Ombuds Office cannot provide a date but that they are hoping the investigation will be completed soon. She only received a notice of conclusion of her file on March 5, 2025. 

The office informed her she was not eligible for any out-of-province student awards as she is neither a student applying to Concordia from high school or a student transferring from an external Canadian university or college, which are the listed requirements for these awards.

“We therefore see no unfairness and we have no recommendations,” the decision reads.

The office also told Prissinotti that Concordia is planning on developing regular communications with program directors so that students can be advised appropriately on tuition increases. 

After months of unsuccessful communication, Prissinotti says she feels she has received next to no support from the university.

“It’s just a cycle of getting the same email,” she said. “They’d tell me to talk to this person and that person and everyone had the same answer, which was to look at the financial aid website for awards and bursaries of which—even if I got all the ones that I was eligible for—would not cover half of the cost.”

Prissinotti is not the only student feeling frustrated. Ella Rutera, a journalism student with a minor in education from Saskatchewan, said she wanted to switch to a communication major but couldn’t due to the cost. 

Rutera also said she feels pressure to graduate before the end of the grace period in summer 2029, after which she would need to pay the new tuition rate.  

“I had to declare a minor for my program, and with my specific minor, [the classes] are always full and I can never take any,” Rutera said. “I definitely feel pressure that I have to graduate on time.” 

Prissinotti said she feels that the university has no support system for students in her situation. 

“I think that the university should have been more organized on that front of letting people know when this was going to be happening, even if they didn’t know,” Prissinotti said. “They should have prioritized supporting students who this was happening to.”

Looking to the future, as the date has passed for Prissinotti to apply to other universities, she is hoping to find a way to secure enough funding to finish her degree. 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 11, published March 18, 2025.

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Tuition hikes threaten student services

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Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

Concordia’s precarious financial situation can be felt in every corner of the school

Concordia University is facing what is being referred to as “extraordinarily challenging times” in the budget updates for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, leading to a drop in student services.

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) tuition hikes at English-language universities increased the tuition for out-of-province students to $12,000 and of international students to a minimum of $20,000. International students from France and francophones from Belgium pay out-of-province student fees. 

Angelica Antonakopoulos is the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA)’s academic coordinator. She says the government has made the Quebec education system inaccessible.

“Our institutions, especially English institutions in the province of Quebec, have now been priced out of the game,” Antonakopoulos said.  

Concordia is experiencing the largest drop in enrollment in its history, with a projected drop of 1,200 students for 2024-2025. Registration for out-of-province students has declined by 28 per cent and for international students by 11 per cent.

Concordia student groups and student unions are all funded by a fee-levy collected from each student’s tuition based on the number of credits they are taking. A decline in the student population leads to a decrease in funding for these groups.

According to Danna Ballantyne, the external and mobilization coordinator for the Concordia Student Union (CSU), the decrease in funding is already being felt by the CSU. 

“We’ve had to forecast a decrease in budget because of a drop in enrollment,” Ballantyne said, “and that’s affecting the CSU in basically every facet.”

Concordia’s goal is to reach a deficit of $34.5 million for the 2024-2025 school year, down from the original projection of a $78.9 million deficit, requiring $35.8 million in budget cuts. 

According to CSU Campaigns research, students can expect to see fewer course offerings, larger class sizes and a loss in funding to programs deemed inefficient.     

Adam Sermergian is ASFA’s mobilization coordinator. He says that students are unhappy about some of the university’s budget cuts, mainly regarding the reduction of the shuttle bus service.

“ASFA [is] really trying to promote that we, as students, should have a say on what gets cut and what does not get cut,” Sermergian said.

The government’s new tuition framework makes it so a bigger percentage of tuition fees is clawed back from universities in Quebec to be added to a government pool split between the whole university network. 

Before the new tuition framework, the tuition fees for international students were deregulated, with universities in Quebec setting the tuition fee for international students and keeping all of the revenue. 

The government pool has increased 54 per cent since last year, from $259 million to $400 million. English institutions account for 50 per cent of the clawback, but will only be receiving 20 per cent in return. 

Penelope Higgins, CSU’s campaigns researcher, has been working on two reports that will be published shortly regarding the history and impact of the tuition hikes on the Concordia student population. She believes this clawback is a way for the government to avoid investing in universities.


“It is a way of cutting public funding for them. They take more money from student fees, […] that gives the government more money to spend on universities that doesn’t have to come from public funding,” Higgins said. “So it’s a way of privatizing the source of funding for higher education.”

Higgins says that, regardless of tuition framework, international students are expected to pay for everyone.

“This is a larger and a longer fight for international students to be treated with justice, and to not be exploited as a source of funding to keep what are supposed to be state-funded public services in Canada alive,” she said. 

Antonakopoulos says it’s important for students to care about tuition hikes because it is an issue that affects the entire student body.

“It’s really important for students to be incentivized to care,” Antonakopoulos said. “Because, even though they are not being affected personally at their bottom line, it is their education that will ultimately be affected.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 1, published September 3, 2024.

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In conversation with Graham Carr

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Graham Carr is the President and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University. Courtesy Concordia University

Geneviève Sylvestre & Hannah Vogan,
Local Journalism Initiative

The Link sat down with Concordia’s president to answer the student body’s pressing questions

Disclaimer: Answers have been edited for clarity.

As we enter the winter semester of Concordia University’s 50-year anniversary, how are you looking to improve the university for current and future students?

For me, the big question as we enter the new year, as we enter any year, is how we can make the university better.

I think Concordia has been on a pretty good growth trajectory, but obviously, the challenges are growing for us, in part because of government policies which severely affected our recruitment from the rest of Canada and created instability with international students; and both of those communities are pretty critical to Concordia’s identity.

Unfortunately, that situation is only worsening this year because of Bill 74—which all universities in Quebec opposed—which has really put a chill on international student recruitment, not just for Concordia, but for others as well; and I think it sent an unfortunate message on behalf of Montreal. 

I’ve been at Concordia a long time. We’ve been through challenging periods before. I think that we’ve always been an innovative university that has a very distinct place in Montreal, and a very distinct place in Quebec. We have to remember that, notwithstanding the challenges that are out there, fantastic things go on at this university all the time. And we need to continue to tell that message. Although we’re going to experience a decline in international students this year, and we saw a decline in students from the rest of Canada, we need to continue to convey the message that we still want those students, and we’re going to do everything possible to encourage them to come. I think that diversity has always been one of Concordia’s strongest assets, and we need to keep that going forward.

Since the announcement of tuition hikes, Concordia has been forced to make cuts and limit spending, including the reduction of the shuttle bus service schedule. What would you have to say to students who are frustrated about not being able to access services that they were promised when they enrolled?

My answer is not just for students, my answer is for the whole community that uses the shuttle bus service to move back and forth between campuses. My answer to that goes beyond the specific case of the shuttle bus, because there are a lot of things that we’ve had to stop doing or slow down. 

Obviously, a direct impact of reducing the schedule of the shuttle bus is that people need to find an alternative way to go between campuses because the shuttle is not available. But, there are a lot of indirect impacts of the budget cuts that are less visible but equally tangible within the university. We’ve essentially frozen hiring for the last year, both in terms of new faculty recruitment, but also in terms of staff recruitment. That means we have a lot of staff positions that are unfilled, which means that some people are being asked to try to pick up the slack and do extra work.

We are in a significant deficit situation. I know it’s a cliché to say hard decisions have to be taken, but we are having to make decisions which are not about growth. There are decisions about: “OK, can we do without this?”

What I’m heartened by is the efforts that faculty, staff, students and others have made to try to work within the new parameters that are in front of us. We’re invested in this place. We know it’s a great place, we want it to be even more successful, and we’re going to do our part to help that happen. 

I can’t be naive and not say we have a vertical climb ahead of us. If we lose a cohort of students last year, we’ve lost that cohort of students for four years, and the same is true this year; it has a compounding effect. We need to become as creative as possible in our thinking about how we deal with the financial situation. It can’t just be about where we’re going to cut, it has to also be about what can we do differently, and where we can find new opportunities to generate revenue.

There have been videos circulating on social media of students being assaulted by Campus Safety and Prevention Services (CSPS) agents and SPVM officers on campus. How will you ensure, going forward, that students are kept safe while protesting?

Our duty is to keep the whole community safe: that’s students, staff and faculty. It’s very painful to watch videos of conflicts and violence happening, whether it’s verbal violence or physical violence. We don’t want that on campus. Our campus safety officers are individuals who worked on, for the most part, the university campus for a long time. They’re as committed to this place as we are, and there are limits to what they can’t do. They’re a small number of individuals, they’ve been asked to do an awful lot over the last 16 months or so which is out of the ordinary. We need to realize that some of those CSPS agents have also been the victims of incidents. As a community, we have to say that certain things are unacceptable, and obviously, violence is one of those things. Keeping the community safe is a priority. I’m always very troubled and hurt when people say: “I don’t feel safe coming to campus.” Whether that’s a student, a faculty member or a staff member.

I’m really saddened by events that have happened over the last 16 months or so. I’m saddened by the vandalism that’s happened at the university. I’m saddened by the fact that there have been occasions when we have called the SPVM onto campus. CSPS agents are not bouncers. This is not a nightclub. It’s a last resort to call the SPVM, and the SPVM doesn’t want to be on campus either. It’s really concerning to me that this has become, over the last several months, a point of discussion, because it seems to me that we as a community have the capacity within ourselves to create the environment where we can express ourselves, but do so in a way that doesn’t feel intimidating. We’ve unfortunately seen incidents that are really regrettable here.

For over a year, students have been demanding that the university divest from companies funding the genocide in Palestine, including, but not limited to, BMO. This has culminated in 85,000 students going on strike in support of Palestine in November 2024. What do you have to say to students who feel that their demands are not being met or listened to by the administration?

I think two things. There’s one part of it around BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), and one part of it is around investment strategy. I’ll start with the investment strategy. The investment strategy of the university refers to the investments that are made by what used to be called Concordia Foundation, and is now the Concordia University Inter-Generational Fund (CUiF). Those are funds that are raised as a result of philanthropy; there’s no student funding in there. In 2019, in collaboration with the president of the then Concordia Foundation, we agreed that we would set an objective, that between 2019 and 2025 Concordia would become the first university in Canada to fully divest from fossil fuels, but also to double the investments that we were making in social equity investing, supporting educational initiatives abroad, clean water initiatives, and so on. 

I think the university as a whole should be really proud of that action, because that’s a differentiator for us. A lot of the pathway to get to that decision was a result of students concerned about climate change. We’ve just turned the page into 2025, and we’re going to meet that target. The CUiF will meet its target of being 100 per cent invested in sustainable and social equity investing this year. There’s no other university in Canada that can make that claim, and I think that’s something that the community should be really proud of.

Somehow it isn’t landing with the entire community. It’s like people are still assuming that we’re investing in things that we’re not investing in. We have no investments in the arms industry. We have no investments in the munitions industry. That’s not the pathway that we’ve been on. I think we as a university should be looking at our investment strategy as a point of pride for Concordia and as something which I think other universities would be envious of achieving, and other student organizations would be envious of achieving.

Based on Concordia’s ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) status, why does the university still partner with weapons manufacturing companies like Bombardier and Lockheed Martin, which have a high ESG risk rating through programs like Co-op or workshops? 

One of the initiatives that has helped make Concordia a destination university for students is our commitment to experiential learning and work-integrated learning. 
Last year, we had about 5,000 students who were in paid internships or Co-op programs at Concordia. That’s a huge number. Those are optional for students. Nobody’s forced to be in an experiential learning program. Students have the right, and should have the right, to choose where they would like to do work. I don’t think it’s for me, or for others within the university, to tell students that they shouldn’t work for a company, because that’s a field that they’re interested in working in. 

Being able to demonstrate the added value that students get coming to Concordia, getting a great experience in class, but also having the option to pursue work-integrated learning, is a huge advantage for us. We made the commitment two years ago, and it took a lot of work to get to this point. Every single undergraduate program in the university had to find a pathway to experiential learning for students in their program. Now, based on the success of the last two years, we’ll be able to announce next year that students, if they want, can have two experiential learning opportunities within the context of their program. Students who have had the benefit of work-integrated learning experience step more quickly into better-remunerated positions after graduation.

If students are pursuing paid internships or Co-ops, two things have to happen. First of all, they have to choose where they would like to go and interview for those positions, and then they have to be successful in getting the interview. We’re not the ones who are matchmaking. We’re not the ones who are saying this student is going to work with this organization or that company. It’s important to understand that this is about student choice and that we’re simply trying to make that choice available to the widest array of students possible within the university.

Students have requested that Concordia disclose all of its investments to increase transparency between students and the administration. Is this something that the current administration would consider?

Absolutely—I’d say two things about that. One is, we have been disclosing, in the sense that CUiF has a public report that they publish every year, that information is already public. I mean, it’s essential—it’s important to understand that the point of the CUiF is to raise money, the vast majority of which is used to support students, to provide student scholarships, etc. We need to be sure when our fund managers are making their investments, not only that they’re meeting the investment criteria that we set around sustainability, but they’re also yielding a return, because we want to be able to grow that fund to be able to support more students in the future. 

We also set up an informal meeting group with students from the Concordia Student Union and with the head of our fund management program to try to explain in more detail how the investment strategy and structure work. Investment at this scale for large institutions is very complex. We have a number of fund managers who manage Concordia investments, but all those fund managers are given certain parameters, and those are the parameters around sustainable and social equity investment, and that we judge their performance based on the revenue that they generate. I don’t think we have any problem being transparent about this, because this is a good story for Concordia to tell. The more we can tell that story about our investment strategy, and the more widely that’s circulated, I think it will be a factor that will encourage students to come to a university that’s invested in sustainability and social equity. 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 7, published January 14, 2025.

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The palette of protest

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Protesters picket the Hall auditorium. Photo Alice Martin

Alice Martin,
Local Journalism Initiative

Rarely will you see protests without art, and often will you see it go beyond symbolism

Most of the time, protesters don’t march in the streets empty-handed.

They brandish handmade signs, banners or anything to get their message across. In any protest, art serves multiple purposes to strengthen the broader cause.

“I personally really love the use of art in organizing and protests,” Arts and Science Federation of Association (ASFA) academic coordinator Angelica Antonakopoulos said. “Art in protest is a very eye-catching way to send a message, instead of having to go person-to-person and tell them what you’re trying to accomplish.”

Tuition hike strikes

Over five days last March, the tuition hike strikes mobilized students from select student associations to enforce hard picket lines. Hard pickets require students congregating in front of a classroom to dissuade other students from entering. 

With dozens of classes having to be picketed at the same time, and only so many students, protesters used hand-painted banners with dual purposes: displaying their demands and protecting protesters.

“[Banners] are big, they’re flashy,” Antonakopoulos said. “They have a message on them. [Students] don’t have to come up and talk to you and they still get the gist of what the protest is about.”

According to Antonakopoulos, Concordia’s Code of Conduct prohibits students from physically blocking a classroom. She said banners act as a bypass.

“[Students] were more than free to lift the banner and go underneath if [they] really want to go into class,” she said. “It protected both students that were picketing and students that were dissenting towards the cause.” 

She said that banners help students “think twice” before crossing a picket line, as well as avoid physical confrontation.

“There was a lot of verbal engagement with students with flyers and FAQ sheets coming out,” she said, noting that that was what picketers were told to do. “[But banners] send a poignant message in a non-confrontational, peaceful vehicle.”

Students paint Mackay Street to advocate for its pedestrianization. Photo Alice Martin

Pedestrianize Mackay

In September 2023, the Pedestrianize Mackay group staged a protest demanding that Mackay St., between Sherbrooke St. and Maisonneuve St., be closed to vehicles and converted into a pedestrian area for students.

For Mowat Tokonitz, communications vice president with the Urban Planning Association, it was one of the first student mobilizations he was part of.

“It’s something that really interests me and it relates to my program,” Tokonitz said. “I think it’s important to have actual campus space outside that we can use, while also having less cars.”

The protest consisted of blocking Mackay St. at the intersection of Sherbrooke St. Demonstrators also painted an enormous version of the vibrant pink, green, blue and yellow Pedestrianize Mackay logo on the road.

Tokonitz said painting the road was a good way to appropriate the street and show its potential to a wide range of Concordia students who pass by daily.

“The fact that we also had the street blocked off, and we had picnic tables and banners and things in the street, it gave a very basic example of what that space could be in the future,” he said. “It really didn’t take very long for there to be street furniture on Mackay and for people to be out eating lunch. I can only imagine what it would be like if that was permanent.”

Looking back on the tuition hike strikes and Pedestrianize Mackay, Antonakopoulous said the mural painting was a great way to engage students in the cause.

“It’s always really a fantastic way to build community because mural painting is not like a picket. It’s not like a protest,” she said. “We need to be cognizant that there are a lot of people that don’t engage with that, right? They don’t engage with noise, they don’t engage with confrontation.”

Ned Mansour’s sixth chalk drawing, made on Aug. 30. Photo Alice Martin

Divest for Gaza

The pro-Palestine student encampment at McGill University stood strong for over 70 days before being demolished on July 10. To protect itself and the privacy of campers, the encampment used a variety of colourful handmade signs from different student movements on the gates.

When a private security firm dismantled the camp, the colour didn’t stop. Activists still gather daily in front of the Roddick Gates to repeat their demand: for McGill to divest from companies involved in arms manufacturing and the settlements in Gaza and the West Bank.

This is the case of Ned Mansour, a Montreal artist whose father is Palestinian. He has been coming to the gates for over a week—a new tradition for him. He aims to go to the Roddick Gates every day, barring rain and other engagements.

Mansour was working on his sixth painting when he met with The Link. This painting was inspired by a photo he took. 

“I try to choose something that has to do with what’s happening right now, with the genocide, and just a reminder of how many days it’s been since the genocide has started,” he said. “I try to pick images that are visually striking and can fit on this thin column.”

Mansour’s paintings are made with chalk, something protesters have been using every day to write messages and demands on sidewalks and university grounds. As a wedding photographer with experience in drawing, Mansour applied his skills to McGill’s walls.

Despite squabbles with security, his motivation to keep drawing remains steadfast.

“Every day that passes, somebody’s being killed in Palestine, and the genocide is happening in real-time,” Mansour said. “So I wanted to do something that’s in real-time as well. We feel here, it seems like it’s almost a mirror image of what’s happening in Palestine. Obviously, we’re not being killed, but there are forces that are trying to silence us.”

Mansour’s chalk drawings, like the days that go by, are ephemeral. Every night after he finishes drawing, security washes them away, providing him with a fresh slate for another drawing.

“They think that by erasing our work and our message, that we will stop, but what they’re doing is actually encouraging us to come back and remind them again of what’s happening,” Mansour said. “Just like the Palestinian people that are being erased right now.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 1, published September 3, 2024.

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The fight against tuition hikes must continue

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Students need to keep fighting against austerity.

Macintyre Strudensky,
Local Journalism Initiative

The provincial government continues to attack anglophone students under the guise of protecting the French language

In October 2023, the provincial government proposed what seems to be a mean-spirited attempt to hinder the admission rates at English universities in Quebec, under the pretense of protecting the French language. 

Following the proposed tuition hike for out-of-province and international students looking to study at anglophone universities in Quebec, the response from the student population in Montreal was swift and direct. 

The students in Montreal protested this vehemently during the last academic year. However, students must continue to advocate in opposition to this tuition hike in synchronicity with the legal action being taken by Concordia and McGill University. As legal action is a lengthy process, sitting idly by would only serve complacency.

During the Winter 2024 semester, thousands of students from Concordia and McGill took to the streets to protest, conducted boycotts, urged administrative action and made their voices heard.

But consistency is key. We must not take the first implementation of this tuition hike as a sign of defeat. Student protests and activism have proven repeatedly to be effective in matters of social austerity. A notable example are the Maple Spring protests in 2012, which ended with a successful halting of proposed tuition hikes after the next Premier was elected. 

Over a decade later, governmental policies targeting university students persist. However, a key difference between the current situation and that of Maple Spring is that this tuition hike is an attack on anglophone, out-of-province and international students.

In looking at the success of Maple Spring, it’s important to note that gradual progression contributed to its effectiveness. It took time, organization and effective communication to rally some 200,000 students to boycott and protest at its peak. Collective action is a marathon, not a sprint. 

In the past decade since the Maple Spring, connectivity and means of communication have greatly improved. We, the anglophone student population, must, above all, communicate effectively and coordinate our next move. This can be done through spreading the word on social media, talking with our friends and attending future meetings in solidarity. Our real strength is in numbers.

When looking at the different facets of this issue, it becomes clear how simple this battle truly is. The provincial government and its infamous French rhetoric have once again tread into the infringement of rights territory. There is no evidence to support that discouraging prospective English students from studying in Quebec serves to protect the French language. 

The provincial government has even made exceptions to the language law for international companies based in Montreal to not hinder operations. The irony. They are enforcing rules under an ideological rhetoric of apparent dire importance, yet bending said rules once the real-world effects demonstrate nothing but a hindrance.

One of the key attractions of this beautiful city is its diverse culture and wide variety of people with many coming to Quebec to learn the French language and to appreciate its beauty. Because it is, in fact, beautiful. 

The austerity, absurdity and foolishness of this rhetoric lie in the notion of protecting a language that is not threatened by anglophone universities. Raising tuition and targeting young intellectuals serves no benefit to society and does absolutely nothing for the preservation of the official language of the province. We must not allow this to continue.

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 1, published September 3, 2024.

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Striking ConU students and staff protest tuition hikes

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Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Iness Rifay
Local Journalism Initiative

On March 13, around 400 Concordia students, faculty and staff gathered on the corner of Mackay and De Maisonneuve Street to the sound of upbeat tunes, clanking pots and pans, and the croak of trombones and trumpets. 

On that same date, over 22,000 students across various student associations were on strike from their classes, with hard-picketing measures enforced all throughout the Hall building as well as on Loyola campus. The strike officially started on March 11 and is set to end by March 15. However, some departments have discussed an unlimited general strike.

Under the afternoon sun, volunteers coated Mackay with red paint reading “Free education” in light of the Coalition Avenir Québec imposed hikes, which exclusively target anglophone universities in the province. 

Dominik Séguin, one of the volunteers and a third-year student in the English literature program, believes the implementation of the hikes is only the first step in a series of other “discriminatory measures.” 

“What’s to stop [Premier François] Legault from making more laws that affect anglophones, or any other group?” said Séguin, while swiping her red-stained paintbrush on the concrete. “If people are leaving after their education, I can guarantee you it’s because they don’t feel welcome here.” 

Quebec’s minister of higher education Pascale Déry argues in favour of the hikes, saying that out-of-province students and international students leave the province after their studies and that the new increase “better reflects what it costs to educate a university student.” 

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Tuition strikes: student mobilization underway

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

This graphic is incomplete, check in with your association on current strike status. Graphic Panos Michalakopoulos

Maria Cholakova
Local Journalism Initiative

In the past two weeks, the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) and fellow student associations at Concordia have been mobilizing students to vote, attend general assemblies, spread the word and encourage students to protest the Quebec government’s tuition hikes. 

According to Angelica Antonakopoulos, the academic coordinator at ASFA, this is a crucial time for the student movement to come together in a university-wide strike. 

“[Striking] places a lot of economic stress on the government because the government subsidizes education in Quebec […]So if you’re placing this imminent threat of cancelling a semester, the government will have to re-subsidize the students that got held back while also subsidizing a new cohort of students coming in,” Antonakopoulos said. 

She continued to explain that apart from the government having to re-invest funds, strikes are withholding an entire group of students from graduating and entering the workforce, which would have a significant effect on the economy.

Currently, 14,524 students  are striking from March 11 to 15. In the upcoming days, five associations (Urban Planning Association, Concordia Association Psychology Association, Concordia Religion Student Association, Political Science Student Association, Sustainability and Diversity Student Association) are holding GAs for students to vote on striking. 

However, getting students to mobilize has been a challenge, according to Antonakopoulos.

“Nowadays, especially post-COVID, it’s really difficult to convince folks to do anything outside the immediate scope of their academic affairs,” she said. 

Antonakopoulos added that Concordia hasn’t been too open to the idea of students striking. 

“Concordia has done a very elegant job at making any disruption to regular academic life seem like the end of the world, which is why a lot of students are very wary toward striking,” she said. 

However, ASFA is not backing down. According to Antonakopoulos, a demonstration during the striking week is being planned, alongside some of the smaller, independent actions that will be occurring within Concordia, like a picketing workshop on March 6 and March 8 on the seventh floor of the Hall Building. 

Tuition strikes: student mobilization underway Read More »

Tuition Hikes at McGill and Concordia: Indirect Impacts on Park-Extension Students

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Dimitris Ilias-LJI journalist

The recent decision by Quebec’s Higher Education Minister, Pascale Déry, to increase tuition fees by 33% for non-Quebec Canadian students at McGill and Concordia Universities has sparked a complex debate, extending its influence beyond the directly affected demographic. Students from the Park-Extension area, who predominantly attend these institutions, are facing an indirect yet significant impact from this policy change.
Although the tuition hike, raising fees from $9,000 to $12,000 annually, directly targets non-resident Quebec students, its ripple effects are felt among local students. One of the main concerns is the potential financial strain on these universities. With The Globe and Mail reporting a substantial decrease in enrollment applications – 22% for McGill and 27% for Concordia – there’s a growing anxiety about how this drop in enrollment could affect the financial health of these institutions.
For Park-Extension students, the prospect of their universities facing financial difficulties is worrisome. A reduction in revenue from tuition could lead to cutbacks in various services and resources essential for a quality educational experience. This might include scaling back on research opportunities, reducing funding for student-led initiatives, or even limiting the availability of certain courses or programs.
The Advisory Committee on Financial Accessibility to Studies, led by Éric Tessier, has voiced its disapproval of the new fee structure. The committee, in its unpublished report, questioned the rationale behind setting the new fee at $12,000 and suggested aligning it more closely with the Canadian average of $7,800. This recommendation highlights the delicate balance between financing higher education and maintaining accessible, diverse educational environments.
The policy change also challenges the principle of the law aiming to limit the indexing of several government tariffs, including tuition fees, to 3% until 2026-2027. This raises broader concerns about the government’s commitment to affordable education and the impact of such decisions on the overall educational landscape in Quebec.
Minister Déry’s unwavering stance, despite the advisory committee’s recommendations and procedural concerns regarding the timing of their advice, underscores a potential disconnect between policy decisions and community needs. The current composition of the advisory committee, with only seven members and a single student representative, further emphasizes the need for more diverse and representative voices in such critical discussions.
For Park-Extension students, the situation is a stark reminder of the interconnectedness of educational policies. While they may not be directly affected by the tuition hike, the potential financial implications for their universities could significantly shape their academic journey. It highlights the importance of inclusive policy-making that considers the far-reaching impacts of decisions on all stakeholders in the educational ecosystem.

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Out-of-province tuition hikes spell trouble for Stingers, Redbirds, Martlets, Gaiters

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Sami Jahan dribbles past a McGill player during their Nov. 11 game. Photo Alice Martin

Jared Lackman-Mincoff
Local Journalism Initiative

After the Quebec government announced its tuition hikes for international and out-of-province students, varsity directors and coaches at Concordia University, McGill and Bishop’s can see out-of-province recruitment troubles on the horizon. Non-Quebec students make up a considerable proportion of the student-athletes at all three universities.

Hamilton, Ont. native Sami Jahan, one of the foremost members of the Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team, said that his university career would have looked much different if the tuition hikes had happened when he was choosing where to study.

“Looking at the kids who are in my shoes, whether they’re playing sports or even just trying to go to school out-of-province […] their landscape is going to change a lot,” he said. Jahan is a fourth-year veteran with the Stingers. The team’s impressive 2021-22 playoff run would not have been possible without him.

Jahan believes that varsity coaches will shift more of their recruitment focus towards CEGEPs. He feels that recruiting talent from out-of-province will be less beneficial for Quebec’s English universities, since they will be able to get four Quebec kids on a scholarship for the same price as one out-of-province recruit.

He emphasized that the tuition hike itself is not the only expense out-of-province students must consider.

“When you leave the province, your family has to put you in some type of residence or living situation. That’s another fee. Food is another thing. It just piles on,” he said. “If I was looking at schools in Canada and I saw Quebec’s tuition hike, my family would be like, ‘That doesn’t make financial sense when you can stay here.’”

The Stingers’ winter sports rosters put them in the best position of the three English universities. Only 20.8 per cent of the hockey and basketball rosters is composed of out-of-province and international students—whose tuition could increase by a minimum of $20,000. Non-Quebec recruits makeup 49.4 per cent of McGill’s hockey and basketball rosters, and 43.1 per cent for Bishop’s. 

Deep Saini, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill, estimated that one third of McGill’s student-athletes hail from another province. Director of Athletics at Bishop’s Matt McBrine told La Tribunethat he believes that number to be nearly 50 per cent for his institution. Most notably, 86.7 per cent of the Bishop’s Gaiters women’s soccer team comes from another province or country. Both schools fear that they will need to eliminate some varsity teams due to the hike.

Coaches at Concordia, McGill and Bishop’s had considerable advantages over their francophone counterparts when it came to recruiting out-of-province and international students, but the hike will nullify them completely.

“We’re able to recruit from out west because it’s an English institution […] and the price […] was similar to other universities,” said Marc-André Elément, head coach of the Stingers men’s hockey team. “But now with the increase, it’s going to be another game, and it’s going to be really hard to recruit from outside Quebec, that’s for sure.”

The Stinger’s men’s hockey team only has two non-Quebec players on the roster. However, the program still faces the same obstacles as others that are more dependent on out-of-province recruitment.

“It’s a bit frustrating because we have such good programs,” said Elément. “A lot of guys from [other parts] of the country […] want to come and study here because it’s a good school and everything and now we’re taking that away.”

Elément and his staff are working to find a new recruitment strategy, but they do not see a clear solution right now.

The tuition hikes could potentially create a ripple effect on the rest of the province if English varsity programs become less formidable competition or get wiped out entirely.

“It will also have an impact on Quebec sports infrastructure, something that people tend to forget,” McBrine told La Tribune in French. “If you have three universities—McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s—who are in several sports leagues, and can no longer compete, it will have an impact on every sport.”

Women’s hockey and football are set to receive a big punch. The three English schools make up 50 per cent of the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) women’s hockey conference, and Concordia and McGill form two out of five RSEQ football teams. McBrine agreed with this notion, telling La Tribune that he doubts that three francophone university programs would offer high caliber competition.

The English schools additionally form three out of seven RSEQ teams for men’s and women’s rugby. But the situation is most dire for basketball, where the trio comprises three out of five Quebec programs for men’s and women’s hoops.

If Quebec teams are no longer fit to compete against each other, then the remaining teams may need to move to the Ontario University Athletics or Atlantic University Sport conferences to maintain a high enough level of competition for varsity play.

Out-of-province tuition hikes spell trouble for Stingers, Redbirds, Martlets, Gaiters Read More »

CSU hosts town hall to discuss proposed Quebec tuition hikes

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CSU hosted a town hall for students to discuss tuition hikes. Photo Catriona Ray

Catriona Ray
Local Journalism Initiative

On Oct. 26, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) hosted a town hall to discuss the tuition hikes recently proposed by the Quebec government.

The event was held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and was led by CSU General Coordinator Harley Martin, CSU Academic Coordinator Alexandrah Cardona. In attendance on the panel were also Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) Mobilization Coordinator Lily Charette, and School of Community and Public Affairs member  Adam Semergian. The event covered a variety of student concerns, with a particular focus on what student mobilization on this issue may look like in the coming months.

The proposed tuition hikes would force out-of-province students to pay a minimum of $17,000 per semester. In addition, universities will have to pay $20,000 to the government per international student enrolled.  Most importantly, the Quebec government would expect institutions to charge above the minimum to make up for any potential losses—out-of-province and international students could end up paying closer to $30,000 per year minimum as admissions drop. Additionally, while these measures would not initially affect students who are already enrolled, actions like a degree or faculty change may force an already-enrolled student to pay higher prices.

Semergian, kicked off the event with a brief history of the student movement in Quebec, which has been active since as early as the 1960s. 

“A very common thread in all of this has been for free tuition or to end tuition hikes,” said Semergian. The largest of these movements took place in 2012 when province-wide tuition increases were protested by students from both francophone and anglophone campuses. Student strikes lasted for months and eventually forced the government to rescind their proposal for higher tuition.

“For years there has been a fight in Quebec for free education,” said Cardona. “This tuition increase is just another wave in the government trying to combat that movement.”

Semergian also cautioned against the possibility of student division. “Remember that just because right now [the tuition hikes] don’t affect in-province students […] this is probably just a preamble to something that would affect everybody.”

Charette agreed. “It’s very intentional that these increases in tuition are being done in a way that brings in language politics,” she said. “It deeply confuses the situation and is going to create so many rifts between communities […] They’re hoping to divide the student movement in Quebec.”

Furthermore, tuition increases have wide-ranging impacts on Concordia as an institution. Cardona told students, “Concordia is projecting, on the conservative side, that we would lose enrollment by up to 60 per cent […] Funding-wise, Concordia would be looking at losing upwards of tens of millions of dollars per year.”

Cardona also pointed out that programs that attract mostly out-of-province students will be disproportionately affected. Fine arts, including studio arts— as well as the aerospace and engineering programs—are looking at especially devastating losses.

“This is a first step in trying to coordinate our actions,” said Charette. Going forward, large unions like the CSU and ASFA are looking to smaller, department-level student associations to make their voices heard. According to Charette, because a general assembly to vote on a strike mandate for the CSU would require upwards of 450 students to appear in-person and vote, smaller student associations have a better chance of getting mobilization started in earnest.

While this may sound intimidating, student associations certainly wouldn’t be working alone. Cardona assured students that the CSU intends to assist with coordination, funding, and communication going forward. Additionally, according to Becca Wilgosh, who represented CREW-CSN, most of Concordia’s labour unions are nearing the end of their negotiations with the university, which would allow them to legally strike. “This is a key moment for solidarity between labour unions and student unions,” she said.

A full-on student strike is likely impossible, however, until at least the winter semester. This is due to scheduling and communication constraints. In the meantime, Cardona encouraged students to get acquainted with their department-level student associations and agitate for action against the tuition hikes.

“The more students say, ‘Why aren’t we striking about this? We should do this,’ [it] gives more power to us to start planning and coordinating those kinds of actions,” Charette said.

The CSU is now endorsing a protest on Monday, Oct. 30. It is set to begin in Dorchester Square at 1 p.m., and students will march to McGill’s Roddick Gates. There is also a teach-in on the history of the Quebec student movement on Nov. 16, as well as a petition available on CSU social media this week to bring this issue before the National Assembly.

A previous version of this article stated that the townhall was organized by the CSU, ASFA and La Crues. The townhall was organized solely by the CSU. In addition, Adam Semergian was named as an executive of La Crues. However, he is a member of the School of Community and Public Affairs. The Link regrets these errors. 

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