More than 100,000 Quebec students have walked out on their classes, in an ongoing protest against the government’s planned 75 per cent tuition fee hike.

“We’re mobilizing against tuition increases because of the disastrous effects for students and our families,” said Martine Desjardins, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec.

The government says it’s not budging on its plan to increase tuition fees in Quebec by $1,625 over the next five years, as part of a broader series of measures to increase funding for the province’s universities.

Strike supporters argue the increase will force students to drop out, and say they’re confident political pressure will keep the government from raising tuition fees.

In the event of a strike, Education Minister Line Beauchamp has asked faculty to continue offering classes for students who are not joining the protest.

But Desjardins says the minister’s directive is “creating tension and confrontation” on campuses by prompting administrations to intervene in strike votes. Administrators have warned if the current semester has to be cancelled because of the walkout, CEGEPs and universities would have the challenge of accommodating a double cohort in the fall of 2012.

Students are promising the protest will continue to intensify, with more student associations organizing strike votes in the days leading up to a major demonstration in Montreal in late March, around the time the Quebec government tables its upcoming budget.

Students across the country are uniting in solidarity with their Quebec colleagues, said Roxanne Dubois, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students.

“Tuition fees are much too high in Canada and they act as the main barrier preventing young people from pursuing their post-secon­dary education,” she said. “Quebec should not be following the path of other provinces that have failed to provide accessible education and should instead be investing in its exemplary education system by keeping it accessible.”

The Quebec student movement boasts eight general strikes since 1968 — seven of those actions ended with successful results.

The largest student protest ever staged in Quebec history took place in February and March 2005 when the government, led by Premier Jean Charest, changed the student aid program by transforming $103 million in grants to loans. Federations of CEGEP and university student unions called for a strike and at the height of the protest an estimated 230,000 students — over half the entire student population of Quebec — boycotted classes. With the conflict escalating, the government agreed to reinstate the bursary funds.

This time around, there’s been almost two years of province-wide campaigning on the tuition issue and students are determined to maintain a strong show of force demanding that fees be frozen, said Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, a spokesperson for the protestors from Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante.

“The Liberal government adopted a similar attitude in 2005 and retreated after students went on strike,” he told the Globe and Mail. “Over time we believe we can force the government to back down again.”