Students caught in limbo as LaSalle College scrambles to comply with Quebec quotas | CBC

Less than a month before the start of classes, dozens of students attending LaSalle College in Montreal were abruptly shifted from full-time to part-time status as the school scrambles to comply with Quebec’s language reform.

Alex Abraham, 33, who was about to enter the second and final year of his network management program, says the last-minute change is a devastating blow to his plans of building a career in Quebec.

“I was shocked,” he said of his reaction to last week’s email notifying him of the change. “We all came here with lots of expectations and dreams.”

Part-time students are not eligible for Canada’s post-graduation work permit and cannot work off-campus while they’re studying unless they meet certain conditions.

The new status would mean Abraham would effectively have to leave the factory job that he was counting on to stay afloat.

“How can I meet my expenses?” he said. “So suddenly if they change my enrolment into part time, that’s obviously going to affect me very badly so, I’m concerned.”

In a statement, the private college says the measure affects about 90 students and concerns only the fall semester.

Spokesperson Caroline Gervais writes the measures “are specifically to ensure that we remain fully compliant for Fall 2025 with the requirements of the Charte de la langue française and the government-imposed quotas on English-language AEC programs,” which are a type of vocational post-secondary diploma.

In the email sent to Abraham last week and reviewed by CBC, the college said it had the capacity and resources to accommodate him as a full-time student, but couldn’t due to the government cap.

“We understand that such changes can be stressful and disruptive — especially for those whose graduation timelines, financial aid, or immigration status may be affected,” a statement sent by Gervais over the weekend reads.

During the 2024-25 academic year, the number of students enrolled in the college’s English-language programs exceeded the quota by 1,066, resulting in a $21,113,864 fine by the Quebec government. That amount was in addition to the $8.7 million fine it had already accrued the year earlier for the same infraction, bringing its total debt to the government to nearly $30 million.

The college is challenging the fines in a civil suit in Quebec’s Superior Court.

According to that lawsuit, 70 per cent of students enrolled in English-language AEC programs are international students, like Abraham. He learned about the college through an agency while living in India.

“The standard of living is good here in Canada compared to India,” he said.

“We are all putting the effort to learn the [French] language and also we are trying to build a career here. We like the Quebec culture, that’s why we are here.”

‘I am not the reason for the fine’

Abraham says he was aware of the college’s sizable fine, but thought the school would be able to find a solution. That it would unilaterally change his course load was not something he saw coming.

Gervais explains that factors beyond the school’s control, such as student failures and altered academic pathways, affect the availability of certain classes in September. She says those factors played a role in the students’ status changes.

“This does not mean that LaSalle College exceeded its overall AEC quota. Instead, it reflects the constraints of the respective capacity of AEC and DEC programs within those quotas, combined with scheduling realities,” says Gervais.

A spokesperson for the office of Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry said it wouldn’t comment so as to not harm the judicial process.

LaSalle College says that many of the students affected had either failed multiple classes or deviated from their original pathway in some way, but neither of those two scenarios apply to Abraham. The college let him know over email that in his case, the change is not due to his academic performance.

That he ended up among the group of affected students feels random, he says. The college set up a meeting for the students with Immigration Canada and a college representative Tuesday afternoon and Abraham says he hopes it will provide him with some answers.

“I have the right to know the reason,” he said, adding that he’ll be dissatisfied if it’s merely the college’s way of avoiding more fines. 

“I am not the reason for the fine. They did the wrong thing, they violated the rule,” he said.