CSU Hosts Town Hall to Denounce International Tuition Hikes

Call for Concordia Admin to Stop Treating International Students Like “Cash Cows”

NewsMiriam Lafontaine — Published November 21, 2016

The Concordia Student Union is taking a stance against the university’s rumoured tuition hikes for international students in deregulated programs—which includes engineering, computer science, business, pure sciences, and mathematics—and they want more students to mobilize with them against it.

In hopes of getting more students on board, they organized a town hall meeting to raise awareness about the proposed tuition hikes on Wednesday afternoon in the mezzanine of the Hall Building.

Although the majority of the CSU executives aren’t international students themselves, they are still showing support for those international students who will be affected.

“It’s time to stop with the xenophobia,” said Sustainability Coordinator Lana Galbraith.

“It’s time to stand up for the people of the future, and it’s time to stand up for the [international students] who are going to be completely blindsided when they come to university next year,” she continued.

As it stands, it is unknown how much the fees will increase, as the university has not been transparent with the CSU. On Nov. 24, the financial committee of Concordia’s Board of Governors will meet to discuss implementing a new pay system called, “cohort pricing,” according to university spokesperson Chris Mota.

Cohort pricing is a system where international students in deregulated programs will be promised a set tuition rate for the duration of their studies, Mota previously explained to The Link. While cohort pricing does not necessarily mean tuition will raise for these students, it is a possibly the finance committee will look into, she said.

The Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec is a federation of student associations that represents the student population in Quebec, and includes the CSU. Representatives of AVEQ have expressed concern that international tuition hikes here could possibly mean an increases in fees in other Quebec campuses as well.

They have hinted that they are planning to organize a campaign against tuition for international students across Quebec.

“Were trying to make this into a larger campaign across the province, so we can bring your voice to the provincial level,” said AVEQ’s Coordinator of Mobilization and Associative Development, Kristen Perry.

On Dec. 14 at 4 p.m., Concordia’s Board of Governors will be holding a meeting to possibly vote on whatever proposal its finance committee brings to the table, if they bring any.

While the meeting, held in room GM-410, will not be open to the public, it can be viewed in room H-6331. The CSU is encouraging whoever wants to protest the hike to show up at either location, Galbraith said.