International students in France have increased even by pre-pandemic standards
It might not look like much news that international student enrolment has gone up after the worst phase of the pandemic. It's surely quite normal that, as compared to the 2020-2021 academic year, there were 8% more international students enrolling in late 2021 because it had become safer to travel.
What's surprising, though, is that the number is even higher than in 2019, before the pandemic. Campus France says the number of applications received last fall was 18% higher than in 2019. At the end of August 2022, 140,000 international students had applied to study in France. When added to the students who were already in the country (i.e., not freshmen), it's a total of +400,000 international students in the country at the same time, which is a 15-year record.
From which countries are these applications coming? Historically, due to postcolonial and linguistic ties, the majority of international students come from Africa and the Middle East. Applications from North Africa and the Middle East have indeed increased by a solid 10% in a year. However, applications from sub-Saharan Africa – which also has many francophone countries – have slowed down from an average growth of 8% to 5%. The most significant growth, the one that has probably increased the overall number of students, actually came from North America and Europe.
Affordability and quality might attract North American and European students to France
There were 15% more students from the American continent in 2021-2022 than a year before. They are mostly Americans and Canadians, because the growth from North America specifically has been of 43%. The US alone registered a stunning 50% increase in a single year. As for Europe, multiple countries within and outside the European Union have seen an increase of nearly or more than a quarter. Spain and the UK both sent 25% more students to France, while Italy and Germany sent 16-17% more.
Campus France doesn't provide a deeper analysis of the reasons behind this trend. Still, it's easy to guess that the affordability and quality of higher education in France must play a role in it. Alongside Germany, France is one of the most affordable study destinations in the West and among highly-developed countries.
Before 2019, non-EU/EEA international students paid zero tuition fees at public universities and only had to cover a nominal administrative fee and their cost of living. They were de facto considered equal to domestic students. In 2019, a highly-protested reform of the Macron government introduced fees ranging from €2,770 to €3,770 per year for non-EU/EEA students. The lower end is paid by undergraduates, and the higher end by master's students. Because of their important research contribution to the country, non-EU/EEA doctoral students still only pay €380 per year.
This hike in non-EU/EEA fees might have limited the ability of some students from Africa, the Middle East and Asia to study in France. However, these fees remain significantly lower for North American and other European students than those in their own countries. For example, British undergraduates have to pay around £9,000, or over €10,000, per year back home. So paying 30% less might make the move to France worth it.
Like the UK, the US also has notoriously high tuition fees, even for domestic students. Student debt has become a real crisis in the US, with each generation amassing more debt than the next. Bloomberg reports that Gen Zs have higher student debt than Millennials. At the same time, there is a growing trend of Americans moving to Europe to enjoy a more affordable cost of living. Americans moving to France to study are clearly part of this trend.
As for students from within the European Union (i.e., those from Italy, Spain, Germany and others), they can still enjoy tuition-free education like French citizens. University is not free in Italy and Spain, even if domestic tuition fees are fairly low.
Running counter to the overall trend, two Asian countries, namely China and Vietnam, have registered a net decrease in the number of students they send to France, of -2% and -4% respectively. In both cases, this might have more to do with the pandemic-related travel restrictions in the countries than anything in their relationship with France. They both still had such restrictions in place in late 2021.
France has many excellent public universities, three of which are ranked among the QS Top 100 in the world – Université PSL (Paris Sciences & Lettres), Ecole Polytechnique and the Sorbonne. Campus France notes that business schools, in particular, have been attracting more international students. To attend public universities, international students usually need B2 (upper intermediate) proficiency in French, for example, by taking the DELF (Diplôme d'Études en Langue Française) test. Some of their programs are bilingual in English, but most English-medium programs are offered by private universities, which charge €3,000-10,000 in tuition fees per year.
International students bring a net profit of €1.35 billion per year to France
How important is the international education sector to France's economy? Another study of Campus France shows that international students contribute a stunning €5 billion annually to the French economy. When their costs incurred to the state (through house subsidies, scholarships, social security, etc.) are deducted, it still comes down to a net profit of €1.35 billion. Even if international students pay low or no tuition fees, they contribute to the economy by working part-time, renting accommodation and buying from French businesses.
Furthermore, international students informally promote French products and tourism back in their home countries. 93% of those students surveyed by Campus France say they'd recommend France for tourism, and 80% want to keep consuming French brands. Out of a sample of nearly 1000 international students, 88% also said they'd like to work for a French company after graduating. It seems like a win-win situation, where international students are able to benefit from quality education at a low cost while France also benefits from their economic contribution.
