At the Sorbonne, Moroccan students will have to pay ten times more

Access to this prestigious institution will represent a major financial cost for new non-European arrivals. The Board of Directors has validated a new pricing schedule that increases the cost of the bachelor’s degree from 178 to 2,895 euros. For the master’s level, the increase is even more significant, going from 254 to 3,941 euros. The university administration claims to have made this decision with regret in order to address a financial imbalance exacerbated by the measures taken by the State.

This reform spares certain categories, such as citizens of the European Union, students in exile or those from the least developed countries (LDCs) such as Senegal or the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, students from Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia do not benefit from this exemption. Not being classified among the most vulnerable populations according to the criteria of the United Nations, they will have to pay the full rate.

This decision is provoking strong opposition on campus. About a hundred teachers and staff members have signed a column to denounce what they describe as discriminatory measures. They warn of the risk of seeing the French university close to international students, who already have to bear high costs related to visas and housing, in a context where the abolition of the Personal Housing Assistance (APL) for foreigners is also under discussion.