fbpx
Market intelligence for international student recruitment from ICEF
14th Dec 2022

Study estimates economic impact of foreign students in France at €5 billion

Short on time? Here are the highlights:
  • International students studying in France offer a significant net economic benefit for the country (on the order of €1.35 billion based on 2020/21 enrolment levels)
  • Most students rely on a combination of self-funding, employment earnings, and public subsidies to meet the costs of their study programmes in France

A new study from Campus France calculates that foreign students had a direct economic impact of slightly more than €5 billion annually as of 2021. The study uses a base enrolment of 303,000 foreign students for this estimate, suggesting the actual spending of foreign students in the country this year is somewhat higher still (the latest enrolment data puts the total number of foreign students in France at just over 400,000 as of this year).

Based on a survey of a representative sample of nearly 10,000 foreign students in France, the study breaks down its projection of total spending as follows.

  • Monthly living expenses: €2,836,000,000
  • Tuition fees: €873,000,000
  • Spending by visiting relatives: €393,000,000
  • Transportation: €461,000,000
  • French-language training: €73,000,000
  • Social security contributions: €375,000,000
  • Expenses for visas and permits: €35,000,000
  • Total student spending: €5,046,000,000

Against this total, the student also estimates the following offsetting public expenditures for international students in the country.

  • Scholarships from the French government: €53,000,000
  • Public funding of higher education for international students): €3,104,100,000
  • Housing aid: €206,600,000
  • Operating costs for Campus France+: €86,900,000
  • Social security expenditure for international students: €247,200,000
  • Total public spending attributed to international students: €3,698,000,000

With all spending and public expenses tallied in this way, the study concludes that visiting students contribute a net direct economic benefit of €1.35 billion.

How do students fund their studies?

Nearly eight in ten respondents (77%) said they relied on financial support from friends and family to support their studies. Another 48% said they used their own savings for study expenses. The survey responses in this section do not add up to 100% as students were allowed to cite multiple sources of funds. However, it's clear from the pattern of response that foreign students in France are primarily self-funded.

Other important funding sources include: Caisse des Allocations Familiales (a public subsidy for rental housing) (46%), employment earnings in France (34%), and scholarships (either from their home countries or from France) (18%).

Nearly half of students (48%) work during their studies in France, and more than half of those consider their in-country employment to be essential to meeting their expenses.

The bigger picture

"Beyond the direct economic impact, welcoming international students has a real impact on France's influence," says the study report from Campus France. "The stay produces direct positive effects on students, for the desire to work with French companies (88% of respondents), to consume French products (80%), or the desire to return to France for tourism (88 %). International students will also be [important advocates for] the country, recommending France as a work destination (84%), vacation (93%), stay for studies (90%), or to live there (75%)."

For additional background, please see:

Most Recent

  • Survey reveals students’ views on AI in study search and admissions Read More
  • US increases visa handling capacity in India Read More
  • International education a focal point of debate in Australia as the prospect of further regulation looms Read More

Most Popular

  • Canada’s foreign enrolment grew by more than 30% in 2022 Read More
  • Measuring cost of study and cost of living across study destinations Read More
  • Recruiting in the Emirates: Big goals, world-class education, and new scholarships Read More

Because you found this article interesting

US increases visa handling capacity in India American universities and colleges are being supported by their federal government in ramping up their competitive offer to...
Read more
International education a focal point of debate in Australia as the prospect of further regulation looms It didn’t take long for Australian schools and universities to recover their international student numbers once Australia’s border...
Read more
Is Canada losing ground as a preferred destination for Indian students? A featured panel at the annual Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) conference in Vancouver this week raised...
Read more
How is Indian student mobility changing in 2023? The shape of outbound mobility from India has changed over the course of 2023, with the UK and...
Read more
International enrolment in Canadian K-12 recovered to more than 80% of pre-pandemic levels in 2022/23 Canada’s K-12 public schools enrolled just over 33,000 foreign students in 2022/23. That total includes nearly 29,000 in...
Read more
Impact of UK’s dependant visa policy shows as nearly half of business schools miss targets In what appears to be an early signal of the impact of an important change to UK visa...
Read more
US: New coalition pushes for coordinated national strategy for international education Of the leading destinations for study abroad, only the US does not have an official international education strategy....
Read more
US international enrolment passed pre-pandemic levels for “near record high” in 2022/23 The number of international students in US higher education in 2022/23 exceeded 1 million and increased year-over-year by...
Read more
What are you looking for?
Quick Links