In an open letter published in the Journal de Montréal, the president and deans of the ten institutions of the Université du Québec defended the financial measures announced by Quebec to restore balance in funding between international students and those from outside Quebec.

On October 13, Minister of Higher Education Pascale Déry and her colleague in the French language Jean-François Roberge announced the imposition of a minimum rate for all students from outside Quebec enrolled in the first and second professional cycles.

Under this measure, non-resident Canadian students in Quebec will have to pay a rate equivalent to the government's training costs. Tuition fees will decrease from $8,992 to approximately $17,000. As for international students, the minimum rate will be increased to nearly $20,000 starting from Fall 2024. A portion of the tuition fees for these students will also be redistributed to universities, especially French-speaking ones.

The measures aim, according to the government, to correct the financial imbalance between French-speaking and English-speaking networks, which has been exacerbated by the adoption of a deregulation policy by the Liberal government of Philippe Couillard.

The deans also clarified in their letter that in 2018, the Liberal government set a limit on the equitable distribution of all income from international students among universities.

At the same time, the support granted to universities for these students was withdrawn.

Previously, university heads explained that each university sent the increased tuition fees paid by international students to the Quebec government. The state then distributed this amount equally among educational institutions.

By abolishing this system, the government allowed universities to impose fees on international students at any amount they wanted and keep all the money collected for themselves.

Due to Quebec's geographical proximity to the United States and the greater ability to pay for English-speaking international students, this raised concerns about a significant imbalance in the financial resources of universities in Quebec, as mentioned by the signatories of the letter.