Demand for English college in Outaouais collides with Quebec's Law 14

Tashi Farmilo

Demand for English-language college education in the Outaouais has climbed sharply this year, but Quebec's Law 14 is preventing Cégep Heritage College from admitting more students, leaving the Gatineau institution unable to meet a 75 per cent jump in first-round applications for 2026-2027.

The pressure comes as the province's college network reports record enrolment. The Fédération des cégeps announced on August 25 that 200,635 students had registered across Quebec's 48 Cégeps this fall, up 3.3 per cent and the highest total on record. In the Outaouais, enrolment rose 5.3 per cent, or 370 students, according to the federation's preliminary figures.

At Heritage College, the only English-language Cégep in western Quebec, that appetite for spots cannot translate into enrolment. Director General Lisa Peldjak said the college's cap for the 2026-2027 year is 1,198 full-time students in its DEC programs (DCS - Diploma of College Studies in English), a ceiling unchanged from last year. Heritage has "the capacity to admit more students," she said, "however, Law 14 prevents us from doing so."

What has changed is interest. Peldjak said applications rose 75 per cent in the first admission round, making Heritage "the only Anglophone Cégep in Quebec to have such an increase." Nursing, Science, Business Administration and Electrical Engineering Technology all filled during that round, she said, and Social Science was "full for the first time in years." Early Childhood Education also climbed, and the college is fielding "an increase in students who require support."

Law 14, adopted in 2022 and formerly known as Bill 96, tightened the province's French-language charter and placed new limits on English colleges. It caps their combined enrolment at 17.5 per cent of all Cégep students in Quebec, gives priority to holders of a certificate of eligibility to study in English, and requires students without one to take courses in French and pass a French exit exam to graduate. The law also restricts English colleges from taking in more students than they did the year before.

Its reach extends past the regular sector. Peldjak said Heritage will run two continuing education programs this fall and a third beginning in January, all capped, with enrolment held back "due to the French language requirements" needed to certify them. International numbers have held steadier. The college takes in only "a few international students every year," she said, and has been spared the 9.8 per cent drop in international enrolment the federation reported provincewide, a decline that hit several French Cégeps.

For Peldjak, the squeeze raises a question about the region's future. "The population in our region is growing," she said, and she expects demand for admission to keep rising. Her concern is where residents will turn if they cannot get into Heritage or Cégep de l'Outaouais, the region's French-language college.

"Will they give up on pursuing post-secondary education?" she asked. "Will they leave our region?"