Drop in Quebec university applications: Déry blames the federal government

Quebec Minister for higher Education Pascale Dery responds to the Opposition during question period at the National Assembly. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

The Minister for Higher Education, Pascale Déry, blames Ottawa for the slump in applications to Quebec universities.

Last year, the federal government reduced the number of visas available to foreign students, partly because of pressure on the housing market.

Quebec immediately followed suit, passing Bill 74 in December to impose a cap on the number of international students in universities.

This ceiling, which will be set by decree and apply as of the 2025 academic year, is not yet known.

The measure is causing concern among universities, which said this week that the mere threat of imposing caps is already having an impact.

At the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi and the Institut national de recherche scientifique, for example, applications from outside the country are plummeting.

The institutions fear financial losses, the abolition of programs and the loss of talent, among other things.

“The decree has not yet been issued, and already ... things are falling apart,” Liberal MNA Michelle Setlakwe told Déry during a two-hour questioning in the National Assembly on Friday morning.

Déry acknowledged there was an average 48 per cent drop in applications this year, but in her view this is not the fault of the Quebec government.

“It’s easy to blame Quebec ... but the federal measure came before the rest of us. I haven’t yet introduced measures in Quebec. We haven’t established the measures in Quebec,” the minister said.

She said Bill 74 aims to reduce “pressure on public services” and “restore balance,” while encouraging universities to review their policies on welcoming and integrating foreign students.

She says foreign students often find themselves in a precarious financial situation and “we cannot, as a government, absorb payment defaults.”

The drop in applications for admission might not translate into a drop in enrolments, the minister suggested.

“We’ll see ... If it does translate into lower enrolments, well, we’ll look at all that,” she said.

At a press briefing, Setlakwe said she did not appreciate Déry’s wait-and-see approach.

“We can already see that the message that has been sent out, especially in the French-speaking world, is that, in the end, we don’t want to take in these students,” she said.

“We need them, especially for our research, development and innovation. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” she added.

On Nov. 14, Quebec’s chief scientist, Rémi Quirion, asked the Quebec government to exclude master’s, doctoral and post-doctoral students from its possible restrictions.

“Without the essential contribution of foreign students, my laboratory would simply not have been able to stand out as a world leader in mental health research,” he wrote in Le Devoir.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French Feb. 21, 2025.