Montreal's Concordia University reports drop in enrolment following tuition hike

Montreal's Concordia University is reporting a nearly 30 per cent drop in new registrations of out-of-province students following a tuition hike announced last year by the Quebec government.

One of Quebec's three English-language universities is reporting a nearly 30 per cent drop in enrolment of out-of-province students following a controversial tuition hike announced last year by the provincial government.

The president of Concordia University said Wednesday that the decline in new registrations will have a major impact on the institution, and is "clearly" related to the government's decision to increase tuition for out-of-province students by 30 per cent.

"We've never seen anything like it," Graham Carr said in an interview. "Obviously for the university it's very problematic in terms of its impact on our financing."

Concordia says out-of-province enrolment is down 28 per cent this year, while new registrations of international students have dropped by 11 per cent. The decline "will cost us approximately $15 million in revenue that we would otherwise have expected to get," Carr said.

That hit will be felt for the next several years, Carr added, since students typically spend four years completing an undergraduate degree.

Last October, the province's Coalition Avenir Québec government announced plans to nearly double tuition for out-of-province students, from $9,000 to $17,000, framing it as an attempt to protect the French language in Quebec. The province assumed that by hiking tuition, fewer students would enrol — and as a result there would be fewer English speakers in downtown Montreal.

The increase was later reduced to $12,000. The government also decided that international students' tuition would be set at a minimum of $20,000.