Editorial: Deregulation Needs to be Derailed
Concordia’s international students must not face exponential tuition hikes as a result of the Quebec government’s decision to deregulate certain disciplines.
Deregulating a program means that all supplementary fees paid by international students go to the university and not to the government. In turn, the government doesn’t provide grants for these students.
The sum of all these parts is that universities will be able to set tuition rates for their own programs, unchecked by government regulations. If that sounds like a recipe for a tuition raising free-for-all, that’s because it very well could be.
Tuition hikes are always a hot-button issue in Quebec, and this case isn’t any different. We protest them with marches and strikes, but so far, the reality of this situation hasn’t seemed to have fully sunk in.
Last semester, the Concordia Student Union had a referendum vote asking students if they opposed “any increase in tuition fees and obligatory institutional fees for all students, whether Quebec resident, out of province, or International.” Concordia has a population of about 46,000 students. When the results came in, 862 voted ‘Yes,’ 109 voted ‘No,’ and 141 abstained.
CSU General Coordinator Terry Wilkings said deregulation, even on a small scale, could be considered “as a pilot project to further deregulate post-secondary education in Quebec.” Translation: if you’re not concerned because you’re local and you think this isn’t your problem, you could be mistaken soon.
As it stands now, six programs in Quebec—law, management, engineering, computer science, mathematics and pure sciences—have already been deregulated. There is a precedent already in place.
We’re not the only province to experience this phenomenon. In Ontario, all programs have already been deregulated for international students, with staggering impact to fees. According to the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, since 1996, international student rates have increased at breakneck pace compared to domestic tuition—from an average of $4,000 to $18,000 in 2011-2012.
The entry barrier to postsecondary education is already high. Higher education is still a privileged institution, and raising the hurdles for international students is detrimental to university life. From Concordia’s point-of-view, it’s easy to look at the profit to be made with deregulation, but this is choosing short-term financial gain. In the long term, raising tuition fees could alienate prospective international students and lead to lower enrollment.
From a student point-of-view, paying more is always going to suck—but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Quebec is a French-speaking province, it’s already harder for some international students to find steady jobs that could help pay for tuition.
Universities pool great ideas from different people—the higher diversity of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, the more open the minds of our students will be and the better our reputation will be abroad. A homogenous home-base student population is the enemy of forward thinking.
Concordia’s diversity is part of what makes it an incredible place to learn and get involved. Our university is host to international students from more than 150 different countries, and 15 per cent of the population of for-credit students is made up of international students.
Tuition hikes stand to damage the social and cultural wealth that we gain from having such a rich international community of students.
Deregulation also fails to account for the future contributions that these international students can add to our city if they decide to live here after their studies are done.
Concordia has been tight-lipped as to whether or not they’re going to actually go ahead and raise tuition. Before doing so, it should consider the larger ramifications of their actions.
As students, it’s also our job to stand up for our fellow classmates.
