The People’s Universitymade by Alpha

Austerity, explained nonchalantly

What even is austerity?

A year ago, we didn’t know either.

The definition

Austerity: when a government cuts public spending to balance its books.

Translation?

Less money for your school.

If you’re not deep into Quebec politics, the words can sound like a different language. So here’s the dictionary.

Austerity
Your shuttle bus stops at 6:30 p.m. Your prof isn’t coming back. Your class is full. Your Mezz is couches.
Funding freeze
Same money. Higher prices. A cut you don’t see.1
Underfunding
Your school gets less than it needs to run. About $1 billion less, says one study.2
Precarity
Your teacher doesn’t know if they’ll have a job next year.3
Reinvestment
Quebec putting money back into schools after years of cuts and freezes, so they can rehire staff, fix buildings and bring back the services that got cut. It’s the main thing striking students are asking for.4
AFE
Aide financière aux études: Quebec’s student loans and bursaries. Max for university students in 2026-27: $23,033 a year.5
Strike (grève)
Students vote to stop going to class, together, so they get heard.

Who’s squeezing who?

Layer 1

Quebec squeezes the pipe.

  • Froze funding: no money for inflation or the salary raises it promised.1
  • Capped international students in 2025.12
  • Raised out-of-province tuition by 33%.2
  • Concordia says the 2024 funding rules leave it about $6,000 less per international student.6
  • Fair’s fair: Quebec says its operating grants grew by over $1 billion from 2019 to 2024.1

Layer 2

Concordia chooses who gets squeezed.

  • 2024-25: $104.5M on administration. $22.5M on student services.7
  • About $9 million on security.8
  • Cut 63 teachers to save about $1 million.3
  • Cut the shuttle to save about $350,000 over two years.9

Less money is Quebec’s fault. Where the cuts land is Concordia’s choice.

In your classroom

Fewer profs. Same students.

Concordia’s own budget update warned of “reduced course offerings” for 2026-27.10

The 63 teachers it didn’t renew taught about 400 course sections.10

In 2024, Arts & Science was told to cut sections by about 10%.11

Imagine grading 150 assignments.

Now imagine being student #150, waiting weeks to get yours back.

An illustration of what fewer sections can mean, not measured data. We’re working on real course-cap numbers.

“All these classes I need to graduate are full.”12

The domino effect

Didn’t plan your whole degree on day one? Good luck.

  1. Course A only runs in fall
  2. You fail it, drop it, or it’s full
  3. Course B needs A. It only runs in winter
  4. Next chance at A: next fall
  5. Graduation: pushed back

One more semester of rent. One more semester before a full-time paycheque.

“Very little classes are offered compared to what is actually listed in the undergraduate calendar.”
Political Science Student Association president, to The Link12

“It’s going to be really stressful getting the classes they need to graduate.”
A psychology student, to The Link11

Strike week

Why are students striking?

60K+students expected to strike, Nov. 9-13, 2026.13
~50student associations across Quebec struck at least one day.5
Nov 21CRUES congress at UQAM. Next up for a vote: an unlimited general strike this winter.13

Who’s organizing? CRUES, the Coalition de résistance pour l’unité étudiante syndicale, a coalition of student unions across Quebec.4

What they’re asking for

  • Fix student financial aid (AFE)Including for international students, and students whose parents’ income disqualifies them.5
  • Put money back into cégeps and universities“Excluding the funding of repression and surveillance.”4
  • Fix crumbling buildingsSome schools have toxic materials in their old walls, and some buildings have had to close.13
  • Rehire support staffAfter a 2024 hiring freeze.13
  • Affordable residencesA room near campus shouldn’t cost a fortune on top of tuition, especially if you moved here to study.13
  • Pay internsSome programs, like teaching, require long internships where students work full time for free, on top of paying tuition. Students want that work paid. It was the focus of the Nov. 10 march.5

“But…”

“Strikes are pointless.”

— you, maybe, right now

“Strikes never change anything.”

In 2012, students across Quebec stopped a tuition hike.14 In 2025, two years of student pressure got Boeing and BlackRock out of Concordia’s investments.15 The same year, McGill grads pushed back on convocation ticket fees, and McGill reversed course.16

“They just want a week off.”

Each student association votes, in an assembly, on whether to strike. At Cégep Gérald-Godin, 60% voted yes for one day. Others, like Cégep Sainte-Foy, voted no.13 That’s democracy, not a day off.

“It doesn’t affect me.”

Take the shuttle? Had a prof who didn’t come back? Stuck on a waitlist? Then it already did. Try the quiz below.

“Universities are broke. What do you want them to do?”

Both things are true: Quebec froze the money,1 and Concordia still chose where the cuts land: $104.5M on administration, $22.5M on student services in 2024-25.7 Asking for a say in that isn’t asking for magic.

“Why don’t they just email the administration?”

They did. The CSU, ASFA and FASA petitioned to get the Mezz back.17 The CSU says the reply was an email threatening to take away its right to book rooms.18

“It’s just politics.”

Your shuttle bus isn’t left or right. It just stops at 6:30 p.m.

“Protests are so annoying.”

So is a two-hour commute.19 Disruption is the point: it makes people ask why. You just did.

The secret weapon

Everything you have, someone fought for.

  • 24/7The library stays open all night because students pay $1 a credit for it.20
  • 2012The tuition hike that didn’t happen.14
  • Reggie’sA student-run co-op, on the same floor as the Mezz.21

None of it was a gift from Concordia.

Every one of these started with students saying, “We need this,” and not letting it go.

Is this austerity?

Test yourself.

Your shuttle bus stops at 6:30 p.m.

Your favourite prof’s contract wasn’t renewed.

Out-of-province tuition jumped 33%.

The Mezz is couches now.

Your grad photos cost money.

Now you know

You don’t have to be into politics for politics to be into you.

It’s already in your schedule.

Sources

  1. Isaac Olson, “Quebec universities face $200M shortfall amid international student drop,” CBC Montreal, May 2025 (funding frozen with no compensation for inflation or salary increases, per funding expert Martin Maltais; the minister’s office says operating grants rose by over $1 billion from 2019 to 2024; the February 2025 cap on international students). cbc.ca
  2. Martine Letarte, “Quebec universities weather an unprecedented storm,” University Affairs, Nov. 26, 2025 (33% out-of-province tuition increase and the court ruling; international student cap; a 2021 study estimating Quebec universities were underfunded by about $1 billion). universityaffairs.ca
  3. India Das-Brown, “Concordia draws outcry over decision to cut limited-term teaching positions,” The Link, Nov. 10, 2025 (63 LTA faculty; about $1 million saved, per Concordia; classics figure per instructor). thelinknewspaper.ca
  4. CRUES (Coalition de résistance pour l’unité étudiante syndicale), call for the Nov. 13, 2026 national demonstration (AFE reform; refinancing “en excluant le financement de la répression et de la surveillance”). crues.org
  5. “Les étudiant·es débraient pour dénoncer leur précarité,” Pivot, Nov. 11, 2026 (just under 50 associations; AFE demands; 2026-27 maximum aid $23,033 for university students; Nov. 10 paid-internship march). pivot.quebec
  6. Concordia University, “Fall update on Concordia’s budget,” Nov. 4, 2025 (Quebec’s 2024-25 funding formula: about $6,000 less per international student per year). concordia.ca
  7. Concordia University, SIFU 2024-25, Annexe 2: operating-fund spending on administration $104.5M and on student services $22.5M. Category definitions changed over time, so we don’t compare years here.
  8. Ryan Pyke, “Town hall flags concern over Concordia’s LTA non-renewals,” The Link, Dec. 5, 2025 (about $9 million paid for security services in 2024-25, per a CSU access-to-information request). thelinknewspaper.ca
  9. Hannah Scott-Talib, “Concordia students share shuttle bus concerns at CSU town hall,” The Link, Sept. 26, 2025 (about $350,000 saved over two years, per Concordia spokesperson Julie Fortier). thelinknewspaper.ca
  10. CUPFA (Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association), meeting notes, Nov. 9, 2025, summarizing Concordia’s Nov. 4, 2025 budget update (“reduced course offerings” for 2026-27; about 400 sections taught under about 63 limited-term contracts). cupfa.org
  11. Megan Mills Devoe, “Course cuts disrupt academic life,” The Link, Jan. 30, 2024 (10% section cut per a faculty member speaking anonymously). thelinknewspaper.ca
  12. Elysa Barret Thys, “Budget cuts and austerity measures disturbing academic life,” The Link, Mar. 4, 2025. thelinknewspaper.ca
  13. CBC News, “Thousands of Quebec students expected to strike against austerity, precarity this week,” Nov. 9, 2026 (60,000 to 74,000 expected, per CRUES; priorities: infrastructure, support staff after a 2024 hiring freeze, residences; end-of-month vote on an unlimited general strike). cbc.ca via yahoo
  14. Iness Rifay, “50 years of Concordia student activism: a timeline,” The Link, Sept. 5, 2023 (1981 divestment, 2002 Hall Building ban, 2012 strikes). thelinknewspaper.ca
  15. Maria Cholakova, “Concordia University discloses full $454 million investment portfolio,” The Link / QCNA, Sept. 30, 2025. qcna.qc.ca
  16. Academica, “McGill reverses course on convocation ticket fees, guest limits after backlash,” 2025. academica.ca
  17. Helena Reyes Teruel, “Mourning the mezzanine,” The Link, Sept. 20, 2026 (CSU’s Julianna Smith; the CSU, ASFA and FASA petition; other tabling spots listed by Concordia’s Julie Fortier). thelinknewspaper.ca
  18. Concordia Student Union and CSU Campaigns, “Statement on the Protests in the Hall Mezzanine,” Instagram (@csumtl, @csu_campaigns), November 2026: “On October 30th, the CSU received an email from the Dean of Students about its unsanctioned usage of the Hall Mezzanine. The email threatened to prohibit the CSU from booking space on campus if we continued to table without permission… it was suggested that this could impact all groups under the CSU, including clubs.” Katie Broad is Concordia’s Dean of Students (see her team page). instagram.com/csumtl
  19. ASFA, Shuttle Usage Survey Results, November 2024, published by the CSU. 1,090 students answered; it was open to anyone, most were in Arts & Science, and Concordia questioned its method. csu.qc.ca
  20. Concordia Student Union, Library Services Fund: undergraduates contribute $1 per credit, funding 24/7 library access and more. csu.qc.ca
  21. Jonathan Caragay-Cook, “Reggie’s to open in late October, CUSACORP to dissolve in winter,” The Link, Aug. 24, 2015 (Reggie’s is “located next to the Hive Café on the Mezzanine level of the Hall Building”). thelinknewspaper.ca
  22. Zachary Cheung and Amalia Lemesianou, “Shuttle bus cuts are draining student wallets,” The Link, Sept. 24, 2024 (monthly OPUS pass $60). thelinknewspaper.ca
  23. Sabina Bellisario Giglio, “Tabling at the Hall Building mezzanine banned by Concordia,” The Concordian, Sept. 22, 2026. theconcordian.com
  24. Concordia University, “Fall update on Concordia’s budget,” Nov. 4, 2025. concordia.ca