National School of Public Administration | An explosion of foreign students under the microscope

In five years, the number of foreign students at the National School of Public Administration (ENAP) has increased from 91 to 735. An explosion of 707% which illustrates the excesses of a model that the Quebec government itself has encouraged, and which he is now trying to slow down.

Specializing in graduate and postgraduate programs in public administration, ENAP had, in 2019, one of the lowest rates of foreign students in Quebec: 5.2% of its student body.

Today, a third of this workforce comes from international backgrounds, a proportion which reaches 65% for full-time cohorts.

These students, who pay annual tuition fees of around $30,000 – 10 times more than Quebec students – have long represented a financial windfall for universities.

“To protect the French language, to protect the network of our French-speaking universities, particularly outside of Montreal, the government has encouraged universities to canvass to seek out foreign students,” acknowledges the Minister of Immigration, of Francisation and Integration, Jean-François Roberge, in interview.

Serious shortcomings

However, this explosion was not without consequences.

A whistleblower, former ENAP study advisor, denounces serious shortcomings in the selection process for foreign candidates.

“More than 95% of requests came from two countries, Algeria and Haiti. For the majority, it was impossible to validate the authenticity of diplomas or transcripts,” she states in a letter addressed to the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, obtained by The Press.

She also points out linguistic gaps among many admitted students: “These people were supposed to speak French, but in reality, they did not understand what we were saying. They were not able to understand the academic path of their program and some approached me asking: what exactly is ENAP, ma'am? »

ENAP reviews its strategy

Faced with these criticisms and new government expectations, ENAP changed course in the fall of 2024.

“We modified our model around 2019 to comply with Quebec’s desire to attract more and more international students,” the establishment indicated by email.

This transition resulted in a significant reduction in admissions: in 2024, only 69 foreign students were accepted, compared to 118 the previous year, despite a constant volume of 3,000 international applications per year.

“If next year we welcome 50 foreign students, we will be very comfortable. We would like to see a majority of local students in full-time programs,” specifies an internal source.

A provincial trend

ENAP is not an isolated case. Between 2010 and 2024, the number of foreign students in Quebec jumped from 50,000 to 122,000, an increase of 140%.

Faced with this rapid growth, Quebec adopted the Law mainly aimed at improving supervision relating to foreign students (law 74), which allows admission thresholds to be set by establishment, by program and by region.

« [Il s’agit] to say: be careful, if there are any slip-ups, we want to ensure that the markers are there so that we can have all the benefits of this immigration, without the inconvenience of people arriving here under false pretexts », insists Jean-François Roberge.

The challenges ahead

At ENAP, foreign students come mainly from Haiti (37%), Senegal (16%), Algeria (7%), Ivory Coast (6%) and France (5%). Despite the criticism, the establishment emphasizes that the gap between the graduation rate of foreign students and that of local students remains minimal, at only 0.25 points.

For the whistleblower, however, the main issue remains the quality of education.

“What I experienced at ENAP clashed with my values. I don't blame the students, but I was wondering: why are we admitting them? What are they going to do here? »