How Quebec's latest requirements for out-of-province students affect McGill medical students

Non-Quebec undergraduate medical students at McGill University will pay more for tuition next fall as the government of Quebec imposes new tuition and language rules on out-of-province students. When the provincial government first introduced new tuition fees for out-of-province students on Oct. 13, the base tuition fee was to rise from $8,992 to around $17,000. On Dec. 14, Quebec’s minister of higher education Pascale Déry informed universities that the base tuition fee will now be $12,000 for 30 credits. While lower than initially announced, it remains an increase of 33% from current tuition for undergraduate non-medical students. The higher tuition would apply to out-of-province students starting in the fall of 2024. Undergraduate medical students take 63 credits a year, which translates into out-of-province medical students paying approximately $25,000 for one year starting in the fall 2024, according to Jason Clement, communications manager at McGill’s faculty of medicine and health sciences. This is a 36% increase in tuition for out-of-province students. Undergraduate medical students who started at McGill University in the fall of 2023 pay $18,333.63 in tuition a year ($21,071 after other administration and society fees).Medical school tuition for Quebec residents will increase by 3%, Clement said. In 2023, Quebec residents paid $5,874 for first year tuition ($8,611 after other fees) in the undergraduate medical program. The higher tuition fees for out-of-province students will be used to fund the province’s francophone universities, Déry announced at the Oct. 13 press conference. Quebec premier Francois Legault also said in a post on X that the changes are necessary to reverse the decline of French in Quebec. Déry said in her Dec. 14 letter that Up to 825 Canadian non-Quebec students entering Bishop’s University won’t have higher fees because the region “has a different linguistic situation than Montreal." The provincial government mandates that 90% of candidates in medical school are from Quebec, so there are fewer out-of-province students than in other undergraduate programs. In 2023, 15 of the 218 medical students entering to first year were from outside the province. On Dec. 19, McGill University announced a scholarship to offset the higher tuition costs for Canadian out-of-province students entering certain undergraduate programs in the 2024-2025 school year. For example, students entering nursing will be eligible for the award. More information will be available on Dec. 22, a press release from McGill University states.At least $20,000 from each international student’s tuition will go to the provincial government. Previously, the universities would keep the tuition from international students, reported Radio-Canada. Read: Quebec employment minister wants to recruit asylum seekers to work in healthcareFrench proficiency requirementDéry also informed universities in her Dec. 14 letter that 80% of out-of-province anglophone students entering an undergraduate program will have to demonstrate a level five proficiency in French by the time they graduate. Level five is considered an intermediate level. This would apply to students starting in the fall of 2025. The new rule is meant to address the decline of French in Quebec and better integrate non-Quebec students into the province, Déry wrote. "Unfortunately, these new measures are expected to have an even more devastating effect on the university than the ones announced two months ago,” wrote Deep Saini, president and vice-chancellor of McGill University in a Dec. 14 letter to the school community. The double hit of the higher tuition fees and the extra time and cost out-of-province students may need to perfect their French will make recruiting efforts difficult for McGill University.The new French proficiency requirement won’t affect medical students, since all candidates to McGill University’s undergraduate medical program already need to submit proof of French proficiency since the fall of 2023, Clement said. Proficiency must be at least at the intermediate level and the requirement is to ensure medical students can communicate with patients and clinical teams. Courses are offered in English at the Montreal campus, and in French in the Outaouais campus, although all students are welcome to submit course work in either language, Clement said.Read: Sitting on top of the world: Canadian medical schools score high in international rankingsRetention of out-of-province studentsIn her Dec. 14 letter, Déry said that few out-of-province students stay in Quebec after graduation. Last year, 68% of McGill University medical school graduates matched to residency programs within Quebec, according to CaRMS (Canadian Residency Matching Service) data from the first iteration of match. The CaRMS data doesn’t capture how many of these McGill graduates are originally from outside Quebec, or how many will return to practice in Quebec following their residency. “We do not systematically track where graduates of our medical school set up independent practice, following postgraduate training,” Clement wrote in an email to the Medical Post. “It is worth noting that just as the Quebec government allocates slots for undergraduate and postgraduate medical training at each Faculty of Medicine in the province, the government also tightly controls the number of positions available for independent medical practice, by health region, and by specialty.”This 32% of McGill University medical school graduates leaving the province for residency is similar to medical schools in other provinces. For example, the following percentage of graduates matched for residency programs outside the province in the first iteration of the 2023 main residency match, according to CaRMS:38% of Memorial University of Newfoundland graduates37% of University of Calgary graduates 36% of University of British Columbia graduates35% of Queen’s University graduates28% of University of Manitoba graduates24% of University of Ottawa graduatesMedical graduates from other Quebec medical schools tended to stay in Quebec for residency, with 95% of Université de Sherbrooke graduates, 97% of Université Laval graduates and 98% of Université de Montréal graduates matched for a residency program in Quebec (including programs run by McGill University).Most universities, including Queen’s University, the University of Calgary, and the University of British Columbia, do not have higher tuition fees for out-of-province Canadian undergraduate medical students. 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How Quebec's latest requirements for out-of-province students affect McGill medical students

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