Bishop’s blames Quebec government for expected 10% drop in out-of-province enrolment

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Bishop’s University has seen a major decline in enrolment from the rest of Canada and internationally, leading it to post its first deficit in eight years.

The university’s principal blames Quebec for the drop in out-of-province students, saying the Coalition Avenir Québec government made non-francophone students from the rest of Canada feel unwelcome last year.

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Bishop’s, an English university based in Sherbrooke, was eventually exempted from the 33 per cent tuition hike the province imposed on non-Quebec Canadian students at Concordia and McGill.

However, students from other provinces considering Bishop’s still “fear that they are not welcome in Quebec if they are not francophone,” principal Sébastien Lebel-Grenier told The Gazette.

“Facing that kind of uncertainty, some will make a blanket decision not to come to Quebec.”

He added: “We had told the government that the mere fact of the announcement was going to be destructive in and of itself. Unfortunately, that has turned out to be true.”

The federal government’s more recent decision to clamp down on international students across Canada is compounding the problem at Bishop’s, he said.

Final enrolment statistics won’t be available until late September. But the university expects a 10 per cent drop in Canadian out-of-province students, and up to 40 per cent fewer international students, Lebel-Grenier said.

Quebec student admissions have remained unchanged.

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Bishop’s had 2,550 students last year. In the past, roughly 60 per cent of students were from Quebec, 25 per cent were from other provinces and 15 per cent were from other countries.

Bishop’s expects to post a $2.6-million deficit. That will have a “very significant impact” for a university “already running on razor-thin margins,” Lebel-Grenier said.

Bishop’s, the smallest of Quebec’s English universities, has a budget of about $80 million. It is in the process of determining how to cut spending.

In October 2023, Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry and French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge announced a major tuition overhaul.

They said Quebec wanted to boost funding to French universities, cease subsidizing students from outside Quebec, and discourage students who don’t speak French from coming to the province.

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Roberge said too much English was being spoken on Montreal streets, with non-French-speaking university students partly to blame.

Premier François Legault later told reporters the “number of anglophone students from outside Quebec … threatens the survival of the French language.”

At the time, Lebel-Grenier warned the messaging and tone of the government’s criticism could have dire consequences on Quebec’s reputation as a welcoming place for students from other provinces and countries.

“I was contacted by a lot of people internationally after the announcements were made by the Quebec government,” Lebel-Grenier said this week.

“It generated a lot of visibility internationally and it contributed to a more negative image of Quebec.”

Ottawa has since slowed down the processing of study permit applications and has put quotas in place for international students, Lebel-Grenier noted.

“So, basically, the reputation of Canada and Quebec as a place that’s welcoming to international students has suffered significantly,” he said.

The CAQ government’s initial plan would have targeted all English universities with out-of-province tuition hikes and French proficiency requirements for non-Quebec students.

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At the time, Lebel-Grenier warned that Bishop’s, founded in 1843, might not survive.

Francophone and anglophone political and business leaders in the Eastern Townships rallied around the university. They said non-Quebec students were an asset to Sherbrooke and rejected the idea that French was threatened there.

Quebec relented and gave Bishop’s a partial exemption. Déry said Sherbrooke’s “demographic and linguistic situation in the Eastern Townships is distinct from Greater Montreal’s.”

This week, Lebel-Grenier said Bishop’s will survive the turmoil.

It’s no longer “an existential crisis,” he said.

But the drop in enrolment and revenue will have “a very significant impact on us.”

“It’s going to strain us when we’re already under great strain to make sure we can live up to our undertaking to provide the best quality education to our students and the best quality experience.”

Lebel-Grenier has advice for the Legault government.

“My main message is that they should have discussions with us before going through with policy announcements that will have a definitive impact on institutions,” he said.

“We are in the best position to tell them what the potential impacts are. But we’re also good partners if the government’s preoccupation is with making sure that students in Quebec universities have great opportunities to learn French.”

Lebel-Grenier said Bishop’s has long helped non-Quebec students learn French and get to know Quebec society and culture.

“We’re willing to do more if (the government) is there to support us, including supporting us financially. We should not be seen as adversaries.”

Concordia has also seen a drop in new registrations for undergraduates.

As of late August, the number of students from the rest of Canada had fallen by 28 per cent, with an 11 per cent decline for international students, the university said.

McGill is expected to release figures in October.

Concordia and McGill say they may have to make tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts due to the tuition hike, changes in funding for international students and the new French proficiency rules.

ariga@postmedia.com

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