Low university tuition fees in France

Tuition fees in public institutes

Studying in France means having access to quality academic programmes open to most people. French tuition fees are low as the State pays most of the cost of education provided in public institutes. The real cost of studying is the same as elsewhere. The difference is that in France, whether you are French or foreign, the State pays most of the cost. This represents an average annual investment of 14,000 Euros per student.

For the last 3 years, tuition fees, for all public institutes, have not increased. In 2017-2018, they were:

• 184 Euros for one year at the Bachelor's level;
• 256 Euros for one year at the Master's level;
• 610 Euros for one year in an engineering school;
• 391 Euros for one year of a Doctorate.

Find out the cost of tuition for all programmes provided in French public institutes on the site of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. You can in particular see the cost of a doctorate in medicine and pharmacology.

Which public universities are concerned?

Here is the list of main public institutes of higher education in France in which most of the tuition is paid by the State:

• all French universities;
• the twenty-five groups of institutes;
• the three Instituts Nationaux Polytechniques or INP (national polytechnic institutes) (Toulouse, Grenoble and Bordeaux);
• the four Ecoles Centrales (central schools) (Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes);
• the six Instituts Nationaux des Sciences Appliquées, or INSA (National Institutes of Applied Sciences)  (Lyon, Rennes, Toulouse, Rouen, Strasbourg and CentreVal de Loire);
• the three technology universities (Compiègne, BelfortMontbéliard, Troyes);
• the four Ecoles Normales Supérieures or ENS (Higher Normal Schools) (Cachan, Lyon, Rennes);
• twenty major institutes such as the Collège de France, the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), the Institut National de langues et de civilisations orientales (INALCO the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences);
• the five French institutes abroad: the the French School of Athens, the French School of Rome, the French School of the Far East, the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale (the French School of MidEast Archaeology) in Cairo and the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid;
• the twentyfive public research organisations, including the CNRS, the CNES, the CIRAD, the INSERM, the INRA, and the IFREMER.

Check the official ministry list to see if your institute is included.

Tuition fees in private French institutes

Tuition fees in private institutes, especially in business schools, are quite a bit more than in public ones. In general, it costs 3,000 to 10,000 Euros per year. Visit the site of each institute to find out exactly how much tuition is for your programme.

18% of students in France are enrolled in private institutes. The private nature of an institute means it was not created by the State. The level of public financing is therefore variable. In some cases, the State officially recognises an institute and authorises it to confer national degrees. It then has a right to scrutinise the programmes that are offered there, which ensures service and quality. For example, the five Catholic institutes (Paris, Lille, Angers, Lyon, Toulouse) and some business and engineering schools are private institutes recognised by the State.