Concordia joins McGill in offering bursaries to counter tuition hikes

Concordia University will offer bursaries of up to $4,000 per year to out-of-province Canadian undergraduate students, joining McGill in creating an offset to the tuition hikes announced this fall by the Quebec government.

The university says eligible students will be automatically considered for the bursaries, called the Canada Scholars Awards, which will be pegged to academic performance and available to students with a B- average and higher.

"We want to ensure that Concordia continues to be the chosen destination for both francophone and anglophone students from elsewhere in Canada," said Concordia president Graham Carr in an emailed statement.

The statement said the bursaries are a response to "concerns that recently imposed tuition fee increases would result in fewer students choosing to study in Quebec."

Earlier in the fall, Quebec announced that tuition fees for out-of-province Canadian students would jump to around $17,000. Last week, it reduced the fees to $12,000 starting next fall, while adding a requirement that 80 percent of students demonstrate intermediate proficiency in oral French.

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While the province is reducing its tuition hike for out-of-province Canadian students, it's adding a French requirement that one university is calling 'devastating.'

The bursaries Concordia announced on Friday are for undergraduate applicants from high schools from provinces outside Quebec. But the university said it was also adding financial awards for students transferring from post-secondary institutions outside Quebec, as well as additional bursaries for graduate students in Masters, diploma and certificate programs.

In the statement Carr also noted that Concordia is developing "exciting pathways that will support our students to fully participate in the vibrant francophone culture that distinguishes Quebec," appearing to extend an olive branch to the provincial government.

Quebec has framed the tuition hikes as necessary to counter the decline of French in Montreal and Quebec.

On Tuesday, McGill University announced its $3,000 Canada Awards for students from the faculties of arts, education, nursing, music, the school of architecture and most science programs.

The government's response to the bursaries has been muted so far.

Following McGill's announcement, a spokesperson for Quebec Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry told CBC by email that the university is "free to award bursaries to its students from its own funds," and the minister hopes she can count on the university's co-operation to implement the government measures.