Student living costs reach ‘historic’ highs in France

Student living costs are reaching new highs in France, with over 10% increases year-on-year in rent, utility bills, and food, according to student unions’ new data.

Rapidly increasing living costs are creating “major student precarity” across the country and deterring prospective students from applying to university, student union UNEF’s Secretary General Hania Hamidi told French radio broadcaster Sud Radio on Tuesday (15 August).

Four out of every ten students are having to skip at least one meal a day to make ends meet, she added.

The greatest cost increases are in day-to-day expenditures, with rent going up 9% to reach an average of €534, according to a report by student union FAGE published on Wednesday (16 August). Similar trends apply for telephone & internet (+19%), food (+15%) and transport (+7%).

FAGE found that long-standing inflationary pressures are set to increase day-to-day expenditures by an average of 8.9% for the next year, meaning that in effect, the first month of the new university year will cost each newly-enrolled student €3,024. This number includes start-of-year specific expenses, such as health insurance, enrolling fees, and back-to-school supplies.

The numbers do not account for scholarship-holders, and assume that a student lives outside their parental home throughout their studies.

This is a “historic” rise, €500 more than in 2022, FAGE spokesperson Félix Sosso told radio broadcaster RTL on Wednesday. UNEF data paints a similar picture, highlighting a €595 increase.

Such numbers are pushing more students into “forced employment” – working at the cost of their studies, Sosso said. “Beyond a 16-hour work week, students are twice as likely to fail their bachelor’s degree,” he added.

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Inflationary effects

France, much like its European counterparts, has been facing rampant inflation ever since the end of the COVID pandemic and the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, disrupting global supply chains and pushing energy prices up.

Price rises were up 4.5% year-on-year in June in France, after a 6.3% peak in early 2023.

In his 2017 presidential bid, French President Emmanuel Macron committed to building 60,000 new student housing units by 2022, in an effort to reduce overall rental prices.

In 2023, an unpublished audit run by the Ministry for green transition found less than 40,000 housing units had been built or renovated, according to news sources. UNEF claims only 3,000 new public student-dedicated housing were built in the course of the past six years.

“Student housing is in a disastrous state,” Hamidi deplored, calling for a revamp of public housing financial help.

In March, the government announced €500 million for the new university year to up scholarship amounts and broaden eligibility criteria, in an effort to mitigate the worst impacts of inflation, Sylvie Retailleau, minister for Higher Education and Research, told public radio France Inter on Wednesday.

A “structural reform” of scholarships, the access to which is currently purely determined by parents’ financial situation, is also in the works, though its contours have so far remained unknown.

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[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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