University principal slams Quebec's proposed French language policy - True North

One Quebec university’s principal is among a growing number of critics towards the provincial government’s proposed language policy overhaul. 

Quebec recently announced that out-of-province students attending English universities will now have to learn French to an intermediate level and pay 33% more money in tuition.

Quebec’s Higher Education Minister, Pascale Déry, announced that English-language universities in Quebec are now facing a new requirement. By the start of the 2025-26 academic year, 80% of their non-Quebec student population must achieve Level 5 French proficiency.

If the universities fail to meet this quota, their funding will be reduced. 

“My role is to say: You have a target, funding will be conditional on that target, and we will obviously measure francization activities from year to year to ensure that at the end, we reach an acceptable level,” Minister Déry stated.

While students at Bishop’s University are also expected to reach level 5 French proficiency by the completion of their studies, unlike their counterparts at McGill and Concordia, the government funding for Bishop’s will not be contingent upon meeting this specific linguistic benchmark.That is because the demographic and linguistic situation in the Estrie region is distinct from that of the greater Montreal area, according to the Minister.

“These measures are bad for Quebec. I think that there were other ways to reach the government’s objectives,” Sébastien Lebel-Grenier, the principal and vice-chancellor of Bishop’s University, told CBC.

This requirement, part of Quebec’s strategy to counter the perceived decline of French in the province, has raised significant concerns among students and university administrators. 

McGill law student Carolyn Moore from Ontario described the goal as “very difficult,” highlighting the challenges students face without access to immersive language environments. 

“I’ve been in Montreal now since September and I’m even taking two courses in French at the moment and I don’t feel like my French has improved at all being in Montreal because there’s a lot of English around,” Moore said. 

She added that she went through the Ontario French curriculum and studied in a French immersion school for five weeks in Quebec to reach level 5 proficiency, something she claimed would not have been possible solely through an app like Duolingo.

Quebec’s French language proficiency framework spans 12 levels, where level 5 signifies the beginning of intermediate proficiency. 

Per the guidelines provided by Quebec on French language competence, someone at level 5 in oral comprehension can understand the gist of conversations on everyday topics. They understand factual, explicit, and concrete statements formulated in simple or sometimes complex sentences, and they understand a varied vocabulary.

Taylor Ireland, president and general director of ACA-Formation Linguistique, a French language school in Quebec City, told CBC that most students should be able to achieve level 5 proficiency over four years.

“You’re probably looking at hundreds of hours to get to that point, maybe say 300-400 hours,” said Ireland. “We’re probably looking at several months of intensive training.” 

He said he reached level 5 proficiency in French six months to one year after moving to Quebec City. It took Ireland that long while being in what he described as “full-time French [mode].”

Financial pressures compound this linguistic hurdle. While Bishop’s University has some exemptions from tuition increases and francization targets, McGill and Concordia face significant challenges. McGill University’s president and vice-chancellor, Deep Saini, called the government’s plan “totally unrealistic, both technically and academically.”

The revised policy, although reducing the initial proposed tuition hike for out-of-province Canadian students attending English universities from $17,000 to $12,000, still represents a substantial increase from the current $8,992. 

This has led to a decline in applications and concerns over the future appeal of these institutions to a diverse student body. Already, McGill and Concordia have reported a 20% drop in applications from out-of-province students, according to Radio-Canada. 

Students from other provinces attending French-language universities will not face this hike. 

“They will remain at the current rate of $9,000 and, eventually, we’ll see if we’re able to lower the rate,” said Minister Déry.

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University principal slams Quebec's proposed French language policy - True North
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