MONTREAL — Concordia and McGill universities say they are abandoning their legal challenge against the Quebec government’s decision to maintain a 33 per cent tuition hike for out-of-province students.

The English universities won a ruling last April after the Superior Court overturned the hike of about $3,000, finding that it was unreasonable.

But the province formally entrenched the tuition increase in a revised framework published in January, saying the government wanted to ensure Quebec taxpayers weren’t subsidizing the education of out-of-province students.

Premier François Legault has said the tuition hike is in part to reduce the number of English-speaking people in Montreal and protect the French language.

McGill University says that while it doesn’t believe the government’s response respects the 2025 court ruling, the school has decided that further litigation would undermine the university’s objectives.

A spokesperson for Concordia University says the school doesn’t have the financial means to continue the challenge and hopes it can work productively with the government.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2026.

The Canadian Press