An unexpected announcement: the French government intends to put an end to the exorbitant exemptions from tuition fees currently enjoyed by international students wishing to study at French universities. The current system, in fact, is a particularly significant channel for immigration that is in dire need of regulation. But is the apparent restriction announced by the ministry of higher education likely to be effectively enforced?
In Le Parisien on Monday, April 20th, Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste addressed the issue of tuition fees during the launch of the ‘Choose France for Higher Education’ plan, designed to boost the appeal of French universities.
The minister reiterated that “universities will no longer be able to grant widespread exemptions; these will be reserved for very specific cases.”
Nihil novi sub sole: the Bienvenue en France programme, aimed at international students, had already planned in 2019 to increase tuition fees for non-European students. As a guide, the bachelor’s degree fee was set to rise from €180 for French/EU students to €2,900 for others, and the master’s degree fee from €250 to €3,950. Unfortunately, exemptions that were supposed to be exceptional have become the norm: only 10% of non-EU students pay the full fee, according to the ministry’s figures.
Strict enforcement of the rule is expected to bring in €250 million a year for universities, which are in dire need of the funds.
This reiteration of an existing rule—it is by no means a new measure—has provoked the ire of student unions, who denounce it as a form of ‘discrimination.’
“Ending exemption procedures means condemning thousands of foreign students to dire poverty,” explains UNEF general secretary Manon Moret, who intends to engage in a “standoff” with the government. The left-wing press, through Mediapart, condemns the minister’s “excess” and “hubris,” and talks about a “Trumpism crisis.”
Right-wing unions, meanwhile, welcome this return to common sense. Some, such as the UNI, would even like to see the fees charged to international students raised further, on the reasonable grounds that neither the students nor their families contribute through taxation to the national solidarity from which they nevertheless benefit. The UNI also recommends that the increase in tuition fees be accompanied by a “selection policy” for international students, in order to retain the most deserving candidates.
The introduction of merit-based criteria in student selection is stubbornly rejected by the Left, for whom merit is a form of discrimination, being the sign of the ‘social reproduction’ of the privileged classes. Yet the figures speak for themselves: the failure rate among foreign students in their third year of a bachelor’s degree stands at around 64%, peaking at 72% for students from Maghreb countries, according to Baptiste Gilli of the UNI. Conversely, there is nothing of the sort among students selected by the ministry of foreign affairs according to openly qualitative academic criteria: for them, the success rate is around 88% in bachelor’s degrees.
The fight for common sense has not been won yet. The seemingly commendable announcement by the ministry of the end of fee waivers could even turn out to be a bone thrown to the right, to give the impression that the government is trying to act on the immigration front, without actually providing the necessary resources. In fact, the end of exemptions is likely to affect only a tiny fraction of foreign students: Americans, for example, who have substantial financial resources. Students from North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, the majority of whom are on scholarships, will de facto continue to be exempt.
