Moroccan Enrollment in French Universities Drops Sharply, Report Finds

The majority of foreign students in France are from Africa. But a 5-point decline is noted over 15 years, a drop of 46%, the report says. This decline is explained among other things by a decline in the number of Moroccan students in France, which has fallen from 16.4% in 2002 to 12% in 2017.

In detail, the statistics show that the share of foreigners in the student population has increased from 8 to 13%. The observation is more striking in business schools (+8 points) where foreigners represent nearly 18% of the workforce in 2017. Similarly, the proportion of foreign students has doubled in engineering schools to reach 13% in 2017. Moroccans represent 10% of foreign students in engineering schools, compared to 9% for the Chinese, the report points out.

At university, we find 67% of Moroccan students against 53% for Chinese students and more than 80% for Algerians. Moroccan and Chinese students are numerous in the "economic, administrative economic and social sciences" and "sciences, physical and sports activities sciences and techniques" fields. Algerian and Tunisian students, on the other hand, embrace the health fields.