McGill University says tuition hikes could jeopardize its music school

McGill University says Quebec's $8,000 tuition increase for out-of-province students threatens the future of the renowned Schulich School of Music.

Principal Deep Saini said Thursday that enrolment of Canadian students from outside Quebec could drop by between 20 and 80 per cent after the new $17,000 tuition rate takes effect next fall.

He says such a loss would be "devastating" for the Schulich School, where nearly 40 per cent of students come from other provinces and territories.

Saini also raises the possibility of cuts to varsity teams, a third of whose members come from elsewhere in Canada, as well as to the essence of McGill.

"The measures the government announced threaten to change our culture as they will create a shift in the makeup of our student bodyand in the experience that our students have on our campuses," he said in a news release.

McGill estimates the tuition increase, plus new government charges tied to international student enrolment, will deprive the university of between $42 million and $94 million every year.

It follows similarly bleak prognoses from Quebec's two other English-language universities, Bishop's and Concordia. The three schools count a higher number of out-of-province students than their francophone counterparts.

Quebec government officials have been open about their intent to curb the number of anglophone Canadian students in the province, a population that Premier Franois Legault has qualified as a threat to the French language.

Though, Legault said this week he was willing to meet with the leaders of the three universities to hear suggestions for alternative measures to achieve that goal.

WATCH| Taking a look at Quebec's justification for the tuition increase:

Quebec's tuition hikes broken down

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How the province's undergraduate tuition changes stack up against other provinces, what they mean and what's behind them.

Saini said in his statement that "McGill remains committed to working with the government of Quebec to find more effective ways to help it achieve its goals of promoting and protecting the French language."

Elizabeth Wirth, chair of the Schulich School of Music faculty advisory board, urged calm among opponents of the measure as they formulate "reasonable" counter-arguments.

She said Schulich's donor community and existing scholarships and financial aid would continue to support students from outside Quebec, but she suggested significant changes to out-of-province student enrolment would nevertheless be a disservice to the school.

"In the time that I've been involved, the last 20 plus years, some of our great stars really that have developed have come from the rest of Canada," Wirth said. "We want to maintain being the best music school in Canada. We have to have a very open door."

"We'll work towards that whether we can do it with the government or not."