It is official, the conditions for welcoming international students in France are maintained and the law on the return guarantee has been censored by the Constitutional Council.
In its decision of January 25, 2024 relating to the “Bill to control immigration, improve integration”, the Constitutional Council considered the measures relating to international students to be contrary to the Constitution, including the creation of a return guarantee (article 11), the obligation to justify each year the real and serious nature of studies (article 12), or the generalization, without the possibility of exemption, of the increase in tuition fees for students from outside the European Union (section 13).
Thus, in a press release published on January 26, Campus France, the branch responsible for promoting France among foreign students, affirmed: “The law will have no impact on the course or on the living conditions in France of international students”.
“The payment of a deposit to the State by all foreigners wishing to study in France, the obligation to justify each year the real and serious nature of their studies, the generalization, without the possibility of exemption, of the increase in registration fees for non-European students and the establishment of multi-year immigration quotas, all these measures present in the text voted by the National Assembly were withdrawn from the law by the Constitutional Council. The law, which was simplified, was enacted on January 27, 2024.”
In a speech on January 26, Sylvie Retailleau, Minister of Higher Education and Research, reminded everyone that “international students are an opportunity for France”. It obviously joins the other players in the higher education sector who consider this law to be an obstacle to France's attractiveness.
Campus France was the first institution to be delighted, because through its “Welcome to France” strategy, it intends to welcome 500,000 international students in France by 2027.
And it is not Cdefi that will say the opposite. In a press release, the Conference of Directors of French Engineering Schools (Cdefi) declared during the vote of the law: “These measures are likely to significantly harm the international attractiveness of French higher education in general, and engineering schools in particular, in a context of increased international competition to attract talent. They also deprive France of a real talent pool.”
This decision of the Constitutional Council, welcomed by the whole body of French higher education, testifies to the importance and the contribution that international students make to the French edifice.
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