France to Hike Tuition Fees for Non-EU Students, Sparking Controversy

In France, starting next school year, non-EU students will be subject to a hike in tuition fees. It is the French newspaper Le Monde that mentions the figures, based on the two texts published on Sunday in the Official Journal.

According to the French daily, "non-EU students will have to pay 2,770 euros for a bachelor’s degree and 3,770 euros for a master’s and doctoral degree". These are astronomical sums that are strongly criticized. Indeed, these sums, notes Le Monde, are more than ten times higher than those that European students have to pay, according to the decree of the Ministry of Higher Education.

While students who have already started their studies in France, as well as foreign doctoral students, are not affected by this increase, one of the decrees published on Sunday talks about exemption cases. These cases in particular concern "students from non-European Union countries, due to their "personal situation" or if they meet the "strategic orientations of the institution", notes Le Monde.

In total, about 100,000 out of the 300,000 "non-EU international students" who come to France each year for studies are affected by this increase in university fees, which had sparked protest movements in the university community and among higher education unions in France.

Campus France recalls that "45% of foreign students present in France are from the African continent". Among them, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon send the most students to France.