Tunisia Secures Tuition Fee Exemption for Students in France, Morocco Awaits Decision

"We have requested a significant exemption for Tunisian students studying in France," the minister said, adding that his department has been able to obtain "an exemption each year for enrollment in master’s and doctoral programs, as well as for all Tunisian students with a scholarship from the Tunisian state," as well as for the "12,000 students, who will not be subject to the increase as long as they are at the end of their program."

To recall, the plan announced by the French government provides that from 2019, the registration fees for a bachelor’s degree will increase from 170 euros to 2,770 euros, from a master’s degree from 243 euros to 3,770 euros and from a doctorate from 380 euros to 3,770 euros. These changes should affect some 40,000 Moroccan students currently in France.

The decision taken by France already seems to be having an impact on the ground, as for next year, and for the first time, Moroccans have been less numerous to enroll in French universities. According to figures revealed a few days ago by Campus France, the platform that centralizes all registrations in the country, the number of applications for a bachelor’s degree has fallen by 15.5%. There were 28,294 files received by this platform, down 10% from last year. In detail, Algerian students were 22.9% less likely to enroll, Vietnamese 19.7% less and Tunisians 16.1% less.

For the moment, the Moroccan authorities have not reacted to the increase in tuition fees and no discussion seems to be underway with the French government to try to reduce, or even cancel, these increases for Moroccan students.