Concordia to Vote on Tuition Hikes for Deregulated International Students

Affected Students Could See Hikes Up to 8.25 Per Cent Annually

NewsIreland Compton — Published May 25, 2019

Should the tuition increases pass, international students could see their tuition rise as much as 8.25 per cent annually. The proposal, made available in the documents leaked to the CSU, states that new international students will be subject to increases between 4.25 and 8.25 per cent depending on the program they’re enrolled in.

While tuition hikes for current Quebec students and international students enrolled in master’s and thesis-based PhD studies are included for context, their tuition is not impacted by this proposal, it will increase as regulated by the Quebec government. These students should expect to see tuition increases of 3.6 per cent. Returning out-of-province students, as well as international students from France and Belgium, will see increases of 4.25 per cent annually.

President Alan Shepard has voiced concerns over loss of government funding for international students. According to leaked documents, the university stands to lose approximately $6.6 million in government funding annually but will stand to keep 100 per cent of tuition collected from those students impacted by the deregulation.

Concordia maintains that this proposed plan is necessary to offset their loss of provincial grants. In the report included in the documents, the university refers to the plan as taking a principles-based approach in order to, “Continue to advance [its] academic mission by building five principles that reflect its values.”

Among those five principles, the report highlights that the university wishes to maintain an international student population of 20 per cent, to reflect, “The importance of internationalization as an asset for Concordia.” It also states that increasing the tuition to match competitor universities in Canada like Ryerson, Carleton and York—as well as other Montreal schools such as McGill and in some disciplines, HEC Montreal and École Polytechnique—will enhance Concordia’s global reputation.

“We believe that the proposed tuition model better reflects the market value of a Concordia education in the Canadian and international context, aligning positively with our position as the top North American university under 50 years of age,” reads the report.

A previous version of this article was published with the headline ‘Concordia to Vote on Tuition Hikes for All Students’ when in fact, the tuition increases to be voted on will affect only deregulated international students, while other students will see tuition increases as regulated by the provincial government. The information in this article has been corrected to better reflect the situation. The Link regrets this error.