Monday, February 11, 2008 | 9:56 AM ET
CBC News

Hundreds of students at the Université du Québec à Montréal walked out on their classes Monday as part of a weeklong strike against rising tuition fees.

Students in UQÀM's faculty of social sciences are protesting against increases to tuition fees and the university's plan to eliminate its multi-million dollar deficit.

UQÀM's deficit reduction plan will lead to service cuts and will inevitably dilute the quality of teaching, said Alex Bourdon-Charest, a spokesman for the students' association in UQÀM's Faculty of Social Sciences.

Administrators at the university asked students last week to cancel the strike.

Social science students are hoping other departments will join their week of labour action.

Several other UQÀM student associations are voting Monday on whether or not to join the strike.