New offer, old tactics
For the third night in a row, students take to the streets of downtown Montreal, unimpressed by Premier Jean Charest’s proposal of a new tuition fee plan aimed at settling the 11-week boycott of classes. Meanwhile, a poll suggests students haven’t convinced Quebecers that tuition hikes will result in lower university enrolment and reduced access.
The longest student strike in Quebec history has dragged on for 11 weeks.
But a new poll suggests students haven’t made significant inroads in convincing Quebecers outside of their age demographic that planned tuition hikes will result in lower university enrolment and reduced access.
The goal of The Gazette and Association for Canadian Studies poll wasn’t to see whether people were for or against the strike, but mainly to look at the underlying issues of access and affordability in the tuition fee debate, said Jack Jedwab, the association’s executive director.
“From these answers, I would say that the students have not successfully made their case to the majority of Quebecers,” Jedwab said.
“Their case is supported largely within their demographic – the student groups, and lower income.
“But outside those groups, they’ve not successfully made their case. Hence, on the fundamentals they lack the support they need. And that’s why the strikes don’t appear to be helping them make their case.”
The online poll found that 58 per cent of Quebecers don’t believe that higher tuition fees will mean fewer students will be able to attend university.
About the same number – 59 per cent – disagree that it is difficult for students who have borrowed a lot to obtain their university degree.
The results showed people aged 18 to 24 and lower-income groups are disproportionately far more concerned about the possible impact of tuition hikes on access and affordability, Jedwab said.
But people who are over 25 and earning more than $40,000 seemed much less concerned about that possible effect, he said.
Everyone from the lowermiddle to middle- to upperclass believes, by and large, that the hikes are affordable, Jedwab said.
Quebecers are split over whether tuition is the main obstacle for people with lower income who want to go to university – 50 per cent of those surveyed agreed versus 48 per cent who disagreed.
While they acknowledge it’s an obstacle, “you haven’t demonstrated to us that it can’t be overcome. That, I think, is what (older) people are saying,” Jedwab said.
The results show Quebecers are paying close attention to the debate over tuition hikes with 76 per cent agreeing that they follow it closely and 45 per cent saying it affects them or their family members, personally.
It’s a hard subject to avoid with student protests a fixture on Montreal streets and about 170,000 university and CEGEP students in Quebec boycotting classes over the provincial government’s plans to increase tuition fees.
A slight majority – 52 per cent – believe universities can continue to offer the same quality of education without raising tuition.
“I think what it suggests is that people aren’t excited about the idea of raising tuition fees,” Jedwab said.
However, he added: “They think it’s affordable. It’s doable.”
A large majority of respondents shot down the idea that raising personal-income tax would be preferable to increasing tuition fees to drum up money for universities.
Seventy-nine per cent overall disagreed, with 57 per cent strongly objecting to that notion.
The idea won the most support among 18 to 24 year olds – 38 per cent agreed – and people earning under $40,000, 25 per cent of whom agreed with it.
Léger Marketing was commissioned to do the online survey of 1,000 Quebecers on April 24 and 25.
A telephone survey with a similar sample would have a margin of error of 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.