Opinion: Is this the end of English-language universities in Quebec?
By Jeffery Vacante, Special to Montreal Gazette, December 9, 2024
The Coalition Avenir Québec government has been handed a report laying out a series of recommendations that could very well spell the end of McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s as the English-language universities we know. In his report, French language commissioner Benoît Dubreuil proposes that, based on current student populations, 31 per cent of the courses offered at English universities be taught in French. Considering François Legault’s determination to limit the use of English in Quebec, there is little reason to believe the premier will not follow through on at least parts of the report’s recommendations.
In his report, French language commissioner Benoît Dubreuil proposes that, based on current student populations, 31 per cent of the courses offered at English universities be taught in French. Considering François Legault’s determination to limit the use of English in Quebec, there is little reason to believe the premier will not follow through on at least parts of the report’s recommendations.
Amid concerns that too many immigrants and even francophones are living and working in English, Dubreuil suggests more should be done to discourage people from becoming immersed in English-speaking culture. His report does not go so far as to extend the education provisions of Bill 101 to colleges and universities; instead, it proposes the government ensure that at least 85 per cent of all post-secondary students study in French.
Currently, about 22 per cent of post-secondary students are choosing to study in English — a proportion that “seems too high,” the report states.
This goal could be achieved by cutting funding destined for English-language universities — or, as the report puts it, “a better distribution of the number of subsidized places between French and English universities” — thereby making it harder for them to grow and thus reducing their relative weight.
Or, English-language universities could offer more courses in French to help attain the 85-per-cent threshold that all post-secondary education be delivered in French.
Under this plan, then, McGill — recognized as one of the world’s top universities — would have to either accept that it would become a diminished institution or transform itself into what effectively would be a bilingual university in order to retain its funding.
And that would seem to be the best-case scenario. Should that 85 per cent benchmark ever be raised — by an even more hawkish Parti Québécois government, say — then perhaps 50 or 60 per cent of the courses at McGill would have to be offered in French, at which point it would be well on its way to becoming a bilingual or even French-language university.
One might expect the English-language universities to speak out forcefully against this report, but their track record suggests they won’t.
When McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s were threatened with severe funding cuts and a doubling of tuition for students coming from other provinces — plus a change to the funding formula for international students — they responded by promising to do more to shore up the French language on campus and committed to ensuring that 40 per cent of their students graduated with higher French proficiency skills.
In other words, they essentially conceded the government’s argument that they are part of the problem and that they should be doing more to promote French. In response, the government reduced the tuition hike somewhat and demanded that 80 per cent of students graduate with Level 5 oral proficiency by the end of their undergraduate studies.
English-language institutions — and anglophones in general — should be speaking out against this report. And so should francophones.
After all, francophones also attend English universities. According to McGill, they make up 20 per cent of its student population. Having been denied the opportunity to attend English elementary or high school, many choose to enrol at English colleges and universities at least in part to make up for what was not available to them before.
Now, if Dubreuil’s plan is implemented, young francophones will no longer have the opportunity to widen their knowledge and experience by immersing themselves in a traditional English-language institution. At least, not in the Quebec that the Dubreuil report imagines.
Instead, these francophones might find it necessary to follow many young anglophones out of the province in search of the opportunities being denied them by their government.
Jeffery Vacante is an assistant professor of history at the University of Western Ontario. He is the author of National Manhood and the Creation of Modern Quebec.
