Constitutional Council Upholds Free University Education in France, Impacting Foreign Student Fees

Seized by a request in July by student associations to rule on the unilateral decision of the Government on April 19, 2016, the Constitutional Council ratified on Friday, October 11 the principle of free university education. However, it admits that "the cost of registration fees must be only modest".

To rule, the Constitutional Council relied on the 13th paragraph of the Preamble to the Constitution of October 27, 1946 to show that "the constitutional requirement of free education applies to public higher education".

This decision of the Constitutional Council was eagerly awaited by the Council of State. The latter had to postpone its judgment by requesting a constitutional review from the Constitutional Council.

This decision is therefore only a step in the process that will definitively settle this issue. At this stage now, the Council of State will have to re-examine the order, "Welcome to France", in the light of this requirement of free education, now set by the Constitutional Council.

It should be noted that to date, only a handful of French universities have introduced the unprecedented increase in registration fees, desired by the Government for extra-community students.

For the record, the current French Government had adopted, in April 2019, a decree, criticized at the time, setting the registration fees for extra-European foreign students at 2,770 euros for the Bachelor’s degree (against 170 euros) and at 3,770 euros for the Master’s and Doctorate (against 243 and 380 euros).