Editorial

The Blame Game: Concordia, International Tuition, and How the Government’s Austerity Policy is the Problem

Graphic Madeleine Gendreau

Concordia’s international students should not have to suffer tuition hikes because of the university, but in turn, the university should not be forced to make difficult financial decisions as a result of austerity measures implemented by the provincial government.

It’s important to understand the circumstances leading to these dilemmas, and find the root cause of the issue.

This past week, La Presse ran a story including leaked information that the Quebec Ministry of Education is planning to approve and allow the province’s universities to raise international tuition up by 25 per cent.

In an email to The Link, Catherine Poulin from the ministry said this scenario was one of many that were discussed at a meeting in January, but no final decisions have been made. Nevertheless, this story is blowing up because it feels almost inevitable.

Premier Philippe Couillard’s Liberal-majority government has been implementing austerity measures—budget cuts—to public sectors like education since they gained power in April 2014. Over the past four years, Concordia University has suffered through approximately $36 million in cuts.

If implemented, tuition hikes for international students would act as a counter-balance to the millions lost due to austerity.

The cuts were a driving force pushing many Concordia student associations to vote in favour of striking in protest to provincial austerity measures in spring of last year. The strikes and demonstrations continued in the fall of last semester to a lesser extent, but this mobilization seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Some labour unions representing public workers in Quebec have come to collective agreements with the government.

However, compromises were made during the negotiations, and any new contract would not erase the consequences and effects of the millions of dollars cut in recent years.

This is a reminder that despite any wrong move Concordia administration makes within the coming years, austerity measures implemented under Premier Couillard are the root cause for these choices.

The university has been forced into an uncomfortable corner due to the provincial government’s policies.  

The provincial government is tempting Concordia to raise international tuition as a way to rectify the damage their initial economic choice to run a zero dollar deficit caused, and that’s wrong.

Austerity measures across the world, notably in European countries like Greece, Portugal and Spain have proven to be disastrous.

The idea of having a better, more sustainable future by neglecting the needs and demands of the present is unsustainable in itself. One group of people, in most cases public workers, will always suffer. This ultimately has a negative effect on the rest of society.   

A few issues ago, before La Presse’s story, we demanded that international tuition not be raised.

If Concordia exercises its ability to raise tuition for students from abroad, it would make sense, pragmatically speaking. This is not to say the decision would be justified. It would not be.

In this complex world, where full agency to make the right choice is almost never guaranteed, one could rationalize this hypothetical future.

In previous interviews with The Link over the past year and half, Shepard and Concordia’s Chief Financial Officer Patrick Kelley have both acknowledged the pressurized situation cuts have put them in, and said they’re working hard with the ministry to make ends meet.

When the cuts first happened, Shepard wrote a letter denouncing them, and last year at a general assembly for the university’s part-time faculty union, he discussed how students want to see him protesting on the streets with them. But he prefers a strategy game instead.  

It’s true that most Concordia administrators make a lot of money, and this argument is one that should always be emphasized, regardless of monetary cuts.

They could further embrace radicalism by making personal sacrifices or joining the protests on the streets.

This would not solve our current predicament, though. Simply put, even if Shepard took a salary cut, or international tuition fees were raised, it would not make much of a difference to the loss in government grants. Concordia estimates there will be an $8 million deficit by the year’s end.

Concordia should not raise international tuition. However, the provincial government should not put them in a situation where they have to choose. The only solution to austerity is to stop practicing it.