Market intelligence for international student recruitment from ICEF
15th Jun 2012

France repeals controversial foreign student and graduate visa restrictions

The new French government has annulled a controversial measure that imposed stiff visa restrictions on foreign students and graduates, as the newly elected president, François Hollande, had promised to do during his election campaign. The move to abandon the 2011 Guéant memorandum, which had limited the chances for foreign post-secondary students to stay in the country after their studies, was overturned 31 May - almost exactly a year after it was first announced. The “new circular is understood to tell the relevant officials not to deport students whose temporary right to stay has run out, and to speed up the handling of requests for working papers,” RFI reports.

“The new memorandum will restore France’s image in the world and will reinforce positive aspects of our system of higher education and research,” said a statement by the higher education ministry.

The original policy had “caused a storm of opposition from students’ unions, immigrants’ rights groups and employers when it was issued,” according to RFI, and the previous government had already backed down from some of its most restrictive provisions. France’s main student union welcomed the repeal but said in a statement on its website that the move alone was not sufficient and that it would continue to campaign for other measures to improve conditions for foreign students in France. Ministers also ordered that the work-permit application process be made more efficient and transparent. Sources: The Chronicle of Higher Education, The NY Times

Most Recent

  • US institutions bracing for a challenging enrolment outlook for 2025/26 Read More
  • How the UK’s Agent Quality Framework will shape the future of agent training Read More
  • Dutch government walks back controversial measures to constrain English-taught degrees Read More

Most Popular

  • Which countries will contribute the most to global student mobility in 2030? Read More
  • Research shows link between study abroad and poverty alleviation  Read More
  • Beyond the Big Four: How demand for study abroad is shifting to destinations in Asia and Europe Read More

Because you found this article interesting

US institutions bracing for a challenging enrolment outlook for 2025/26 The Institute of International Education’s (IIE) twice-yearly snapshot surveys are always required reading for international educators. That is...
Read more
How the UK’s Agent Quality Framework will shape the future of agent training This article was originally published in the ICEF Academy Knowledge Hub and is reproduced here with permission. International...
Read more
Dutch government walks back controversial measures to constrain English-taught degrees In a 3 July 2025 letter to the Dutch parliament, Education Minister Eppo Bruins explained that the government...
Read more
New Zealand announces strong foreign enrolment growth along with a new international education strategy Following a post-pandemic surge in 2023, Education New Zealand (ENZ) announced this week that the country’s international student...
Read more
The surging demand for skills training in a rapidly changing global economy With more than 175 million users, Coursera is the largest online learning platform in the world. It currently...
Read more
US issues corrected student visa data showing growth for 2024 while current trends point to an enrolment decline for 2025/26 In April 2025, we reported that foreign enrolments in the US had declined by -11% between March 2024...
Read more
Survey finds US institutions expanding agency engagement and focusing on new student markets AIRC (The Association of International Enrollment Management) and BONARD have just released a second edition of the State...
Read more
Canada’s language sector buffeted by policy changes in 2024 Amid reports of mounting job losses and programme cuts across Canadian education, the country’s language education providers are...
Read more
What are you looking for?
Quick Links