France increases tuition fees 16 times for international students

The LocalInformation, France has just announced a regulation to increase tuition fees to a record level for international students from next year, 16 times the current level. That means when the UK leaves the EU next March, students from this country who want to study in France will have to spend thousands of euros like those from other countries.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe pointed out the absurdity when "wealthy foreign students are paying the same tuition fees as poor students in France, whose parents have lived, worked and paid taxes in the country for years".

A bachelor's degree currently costs €170 per academic year, while a master's degree is €243 and a doctorate is €380. However, under the new regulations, these fees will increase to €2,770 for a bachelor's degree and €3,770 for the two higher degrees.

The Prime Minister stressed that the increased fees only represent a third of the actual cost of courses, with the remainder paid by the French government. The number of university scholarships has also tripled from 7,000 to 21,000, and 14,000 grants will be made available to students from developing countries. Combined with other funding, one in four international students will be eligible for a grant or scholarship, according to the government.

French officials see the decision to raise tuition fees as a revolution to make higher education more attractive. The current “nearly free” level may be seen by many international students, including Chinese, as a sign of low quality and discourage them from choosing France.

Despite the increase, international student fees in France are still much lower than in the UK, where tuition fees vary widely between institutions and can be as high as €10,000 a year. In the US, meanwhile, where higher education is notoriously expensive, international students paid an average of $24,930 in the 2016-2017 academic year.

However, student unions such as UNEF have strongly opposed the new regulation, arguing that it is a way of "selecting students according to how much money they have" and that France will exclude talented students who cannot afford to pay such fees.

France is the most popular non-English speaking country for international students and the fourth most popular study destination in the world after the US, UK and Australia. However, the number of foreign students in France fell by 8.1% between 2010 and 2015. The French government wants to increase the number from 343,000 to around 500,000.

Under the plan, France will simplify the student visa application process and open more educational institutions abroad.

Currently, France has 45% of students coming from Africa, 19% from the EU, 16% from Asia, 9% from the US and 4% from the Middle East.