Universities
In the latter part of 1970s and into the early 1980s serious under funding lead to difficulties in basic financial planning due to the uncertainty in funding policies; therefore, priorities for programs leading to careers and professions and for research and development in the emerging sectors of information technologies were not always easily engaged this time of little growth and financial constraint. In 1979, nine percent of the total cost of post secondary education was collected as student fees. This compares to three percent from gifts and eighty-eight percent from the provincial government. This compares to Ontario's total funding sources, where thirteen percent is from user fees, nine percent from foundation gifts and seventy-eight percent from the provincial government. Currently, McGill University has the third largest endowment of all Canadian educational institutions, approaching $1 billion. Tuition fees vary significantly between in-province, out-of-province and international students, with full-time Quebec students paying around $3,500 per year, other Canadian students paying around $7,500 per year, and international students paying over $15,000 per year.
The budget of Téluq, which is a public agency, is mainly made up of subsidies from the Minister of Education, Recreation and Sport. These subsidies are calculated from the number of students who are registered annually. This is combined with other sources of revenue, and in the 2006- 2007 fiscal year, the budget of $32,912,000 was generated from three sources: seventy- three percent was from subsidies, thirteen percent came from the incomes of education rights, and fourteen percent came from other incomes
Tuition fees
College
In the 2007-2008 fiscal year, tuition fees for Quebec students is free at public CEGEPs unless the student fails five general courses or seven vocational courses. Private colleges assess tuition. Subsidizes for private colleges vary in amount from one institution to another, but is generally between $800 (can.) and $3700 (can.) per semester, depending on the program of studies. International students (non-Canadian) were required to pay between $4010 (can.) and $6125 (can.) per semester, depending on the program of study. At a subsidized private college an international student was charged between $2404 (can.) and $3732 (can.) per semester, depending on the program of studies.
University
Quebec has the lowest tuition fees in Canada, but only for in-province students. In the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Quebec residents paid $1916 (can.) in tuition for undergraduate programs due to a tuition-freeze that has kept fees at less than half the national average since the 1990s. The tuition freeze was lifted in 2007, bringing fees to $2025 (can.), still less than half the national average in Canada. Graduate fees also remained low at $2137 (can.), on average. In comparison, Canadian graduate students paid $5387 (can.), on average.
Differential tuition
Residents of Quebec pay less tuition than non-residents of the province. For the 2010-2011 academic year, at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, a Quebec resident will pay 3,145.90 CAD in tuition while a Canadian, non-resident of Quebec will pay 6,836.20 CAD. At Concordia University, Quebec residents paid 72.26 CAD per credit and Canadian non-Quebec residents paid 195.27 CAD per credit in the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
For the academic year 2007-2008, the additional financial contributions required of non-Canadian students enrolled in a university were 306.60 CAD per credit. For students at the undergraduate level studying human and social sciences, geography, education, physical education, administration, humanities and law, and all other disciplines were 348.60 CAD per credit. Students at the graduate level paid an additional 306.60 CAD per credit, while students at the doctoral level paid an additional 269.85 CAD per credit.
As of 1978, Quebec and France are under an agreement allowing French students to study in Quebec under the same price of tuition as Quebec residents.
Student financial aid
Student financial aid is administered provincially through the Ministry of Education, Leisure and Sport, which has set up conditions for student eligibility for loans and bursaries (grants). A student must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, refugee or anybody protected under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act; must be a Quebec resident or considered a Quebec resident at the time of application; must be admitted or will be admitted to an educational establishment recognized by the Ministry of Education, Leisure and Sport, and studying full-time, or considered to be enrolled full-time. One must not have exceeded the number of months for which financial assistance may be awarded; can not reach the limit of debt set for your education level, academic degree level or program of studies; and must not have sufficient financial resources to continue studies. Students can not be incarcerated. If an individual and their spouse are both students, only one can qualify for full-time status during the same year.
Special provisions are available for pregnant students and students with families, which include: a recognition of independence that excludes parental income when calculating eligibility, the living expenses of a dependent child, and if a pregnant student is single the expenses as a household single parent are added to the calculation. Students with families studying part-time, at least 20 hours per month, may be eligible to receive financial aid normally intended for full-time students;only half of the number of months enrolled part-time are taken into account. There are also special exemptions for single parents, being at least 20 weeks pregnant, caring for dependents under 18 studying full-time, alimony payments, and forbearance while having to take time off related to pregnancy or to care for a new born.
Students' protest against tuition fee hike
In 2012, the Cabinet of Quebec proposed to raise university tuition fee from $2168 to $3793 between 2012 and 2018. Because of the proposal of tuition fee hike, Quebec's students organized a series of widespread strikes, involving half of Quebec's student population by April 2012. A third of Quebec students continued to participate in the strike by its 100th day. At the end of the strike, the government agreed on the tuition freeze and the students returned to class. In 2013 Quebec Summit on higher education - Government made commitments in the following areas. For instance, there will be a reinvestment, up to a cumulative additional amounts of $1.7 billion by 2018-2019. $1359 million will be targeted to strategic areas defined by the government, such as 50% to selected provincial objectives, including quality of education, improving graduation rates for first generation university students and increasing cooperation between institutions; 25% will be used to support research. Universities and government should negotiate about a better way to absorb the funding cut. And tuition fee will be indexed by 3% in 2013-14.
This students' protest has triggered lots of debates about higher education in Quebec. Firstly, there was a heated discussion of the possibility of lower accessibility to higher education caused by the higher tuition fees. Especially the students shared the opinion that higher tuition fee would lead to lower accessibility. As the accessibility has been prioritized at such a top concern at Quebec's higher education system since Parent Commission, many citizens and students followed this argument. The second debate was about tax-funded or tuition-funded higher education. Levy, an associate professor working at Mcgill University, argues that a policy of keeping tuition far below the cost of an education can be understood in two different ways: as a transfer from those who do not attend university to those who do, or as a kind of collective loan to students from their future taxpaying selves. He also argues that both ways have problems. The first one indicates that those who do not attend university pay higher rate, and obviously the higher rate is unfair and regressive; while the second one does not encompass the possibility of migration in and out of the system. The low tuition fee policy has one aim to keep the young and professional francophone at home in Quebec. However, this policy does not include those students who take their cheap education and leave to other provinces or countries for life, and meanwhile in-migrants or those who receive their education elsewhere seemingly overpay the tax. Additionally, as the higher education institutions met lots of challenges after the funding cut, how to fund the universities as well as how the universities should make good use of funding are discussed.