This petition was drafted by MACES, the McGill Association of Continuing Education Students, on behalf of all international students enrolled at McGill's School of Continuing Studies for the upcoming semester. Starting Fall 2020, the School of Continuing Studies has increased tuition for international graduate students by 35.3% and international undergraduate students by 7.7%. International students already pay more than Québec residents and out-of-province students, whose tuition will only be increasing by 3.1% this year, a figure that is more in line with past fee hikes and those implemented by other faculties.

As of the date of this petition, the School of Continuing Studies has provided no rationale to justify the increases, nor have they sent any communications to international students informing them of their new tuition. This lack of communication is particularly surprising with regards to international graduate students, who will, for the first time, be paying more than undergraduate students and incurring the steepest fee increase of over 35%. One justification that other McGill faculties have provided for raising their tuition is that they plan to allocate 30% of these increases to boosting student aid programs. However, SCS students as a whole are currently ineligible for McGill student aid, and international students in particular are also excluded from receiving bursaries through the faculty.

During uncertain and challenging times, many students look to their school for stability and guidance, particularly those who may be far from home. Every students’ life has been deeply impacted by the loss of loved ones, declining income, canceled internships, and unexpected unemployment, and shuttered businesses. Families abroad have been helpless in the face of similar problems during this global pandemic, further limiting their ability to support international students financially. Many of our fellow international students are not physically in Canada this semester and have been forced to make additional sacrifices patiently compromised in many aspects of their academic, professional, and social lives.

MACES recognizes the struggles faced by our student body and strives to support all members of our community when and where we can. We write this petition in solidarity – we believe that this increase in tuition for international students is substantial, sudden, unexplained, and inequitable. For these reasons, we request that the new tuition increases for SCS international students be reviewed, justified, and aligned with the increases for out-of-province and Québéc resident SCS students, and other international students of other McGill faculties.