With more than 265,000 foreign students, France is the world’s third-leading host country, almost tied with Germany, and behind the United States and Great Britain. In place for the past eight years, France’s policy to host foreign students is paying off, with positive growth — the strongest after the United States from 1998-2001 and the United Kingdom in 2002, 2003, and 2004. The trend in enrollment is also qualitative: flows are growing the most in disciplines (economics, management, science) and at levels (Master’s and Doctorate) deemed priorities.
The following measures have all contributed to achieve these results:
Increase in the number of scholarships granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to foreign students and establishment of excellence programs.
Nearly 20,000 scholarships are awarded each year for a total of around 100 million euros. Forty-four percent of French government scholarship recipients are African students or trainees, 20 percent are Europeans (2/3 of whom are from outside the European Union), 15 percent are from Asia or the Pacific, 13 percent are from the Middle East, and 8 percent are from the Americas and the Caribbean.
Excellence programs are on the rise: Eiffel scholarships (more than 3,000 recipients since the program was created, nearly 400 new scholarships each year, giving priority to the Master’s level, in the fields of engineering sciences, law and political science, economics and management), Eiffel doctoral scholarships (ten months of mobility scholarships for approximately 80 students/year under joint thesis supervision or tutelage), Major (more than 100 scholarship recipients/year for the best students of French secondary schools abroad), Charcot (21 annual scholarships for clinical research training in French university medical centers for English-speaking and French-speaking medical specialists). Doctoral boards have also recently been set up in Japan, China, Brazil and Chile.
French graduate schools are currently being grouped into a “competitiveness cluster” (PRES, or Pôle de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur, Research and Higher Education Cluster) to increase the legibility of their instruction.
By being grouped together in terms of geography and/or subject matter, the institutions are reaching a critical size in the offering of international higher education.
Creation of New Partnerships
The ARCUS programs, launched in 2005 with emerging countries, concern cooperation projects in the area of research and doctoral-level training. They are co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and local governments. They are making it possible to draw doctoral candidates and researchers to France. Eleven projects have been accepted to date, including, for example, a project between the PACA region and Brazil, a project between the Lorraine region and Russia, and a project between the Languedoc-Roussillon region and China (region of Shanghai).
A partnership is also in place with companies that co-finance scholarships. Accordingly, for the second year in a row, THALES is supporting a program for Indian, Chinese and Russian students who want to come to France for a Master’s degree specialized in engineering sciences or economics-management. Twenty-four students from China and India were recipients in 2006. Another program for railway studies is being launched this year with ALSTOM. It is aimed at Bulgarian students who want to train as engineers in electrical or mechanical engineering.
Establishment of a single office, the Center for Studies in France, to advise and guide foreign students who want to pursue their graduate studies in France. Foreign students are supported at each step in their educational process and administrative procedure. The new system for welcoming, directing and helping prepare administrative files (university enrolment, visa applications, lodging, etc.) is supported by the Center for Studies in France (Centers pour les Études en France, CEF). Tested in a pilot phase in China, in three countries of the Maghreb, Senegal and Vietnam, the CEFs have been extended, in 2006-2007, to several other countries (Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, South Korea, the United States, Gabon, Guinea, India, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mexico, Russia, Syria and Turkey). They are general in nature.
Simplification of administrative measures related to entering and staying in France, introduced by the law of July 24, 2006.
Law 2006-911 of July 24, 2006 relating to immigration and integration aims to improve and adapt the administrative procedures concerning the entry, stay and work in France of foreign students. The criteria for issuance of long-stay visas will be specified by an order currently being drafted by the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Education.
Adoption of a Quality Charter
The establishment, since the start of the most recent university year, of a “quality charter for hosting French government scholarship recipients” is in line with the successful path of foreign students. Concerning all players involved in the system, this charter applies to the entire student hosting chain, from preparation to mobility to the student’s return to his or her country of origin.
Showcasing the Excellence of Education
At the same time as its policy to host foreign students, France is exporting its educational know-how and is encouraging the big graduate schools to establish themselves abroad. Such showcases of French know-how are helping to improve France’s appeal to researchers and students:
Galatasaray University in Turkey, French universities in Egypt and Armenia, business schools in Beirut and Algiers, and inter-state schools in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as the veterinary school in Dakar and the Fondation 2IE in Ouagadougou, specializing in the areas of water and the environment, the establishment of the University Paris IV in Abu Dhabi, the establishment of the École Centrale in Beijing.
Several projects are currently being set up in Pakistan and Qatar, in particular. France is also continuing to support French-language degree courses of study (127 courses of study hosted nearly 18,000 students in 2006).
Launch of CampusFrance
To put the finishing touches on this system and continue to simplify procedures in an increasingly competitive environment, France is creating an agency for international, university and scientific mobility: CampusFrance. This operator is shouldering the responsibilities with which EGIDE, EduFrance and CNOUS, for its activities concerning foreign students, have been entrusted until now. It is placed under the joint supervision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research.
This establishment has the status of a public interest group (GIP). With CampusFrance, foreign students will now have only one contact, which will help them with their plan to study in France, from providing them with guidance, helping them to enroll, and completing administrative formalities until they are settled in France, and then monitoring their schooling.
The creation of the CampusFrance agency goes hand in hand with the implementation of the commitment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research, to make France more attractive in the area of higher education.
First and foremost, CampusFrance is:
The merger between our system promoting higher education, which until now has been administered successfully by the EduFrance agency (recognized as being one of the world’s best agencies in this field), and two other key operators in university and scientific mobility, the CNOUS and EGIDE, which, on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, manage the instruments of university cooperation, such as scholarships and grants from the French government. They provide this same service for scholarships and grants from foreign governments.
A powerful instrument enabling France to play a key role in the knowledge economy, by encouraging the internationalization of our graduate schools, by drawing the best foreign students through the guarantee they are given for a successful academic path, by promoting the development of our instruments of university and scientific partnerships. An innovative approach of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Education, Higher Education and Research, which have carried out joint work, in close cooperation and with the full approval of the operators concerned and the establishments, all culminating now in the birth of this agency.
Statutorily, CampusFrance is:
A GIP (public interest group), like EduFrance was, bringing together the French government and graduate schools, to which two new members, EGIDE and CNOUS, are added today, in order to constitute, in the long run, the agency for international university and scientific mobility.