Two student organisations have put a figure on the extra cost of studying in France for students from outside the European Union (EU). According to the Union nationale des étudiants de France (UNEF), a non-EU student is left with €2,160 a month to pay out of their own pocket, compared with €1,101 for a French student without a needs-based grant. According to the Fédération des associations générales étudiantes (FAGE), their start of the academic year costs €7,023, compared with an average of €3,240.
Both organisations attribute the gap to measures that came into force in 2026: higher tuition fees, the end of APL, doubled residence permit fees and a higher income requirement for the visa.
What UNEF and FAGE measure
UNEF and FAGE are the two main student organisations in France. Every year, each publishes its own estimate of the student budget, using its own method. These are not official statistics, but they give you an idea of the cost of living in France and of how much you need to budget for your stay.
UNEF's survey, published on 17 August 2026, measures the out-of-pocket cost: what a student pays each month once financial aid (grants, APL) has been deducted. On average, it comes to €1,300 a month, €74 more than in 2025. The student cost of living has risen by 1.66% in a year (€888 more over the year) and by 35.84% since 2017. For the first time, according to UNEF, this out-of-pocket cost exceeds the poverty line, which it sets at €1,288 for 2026.
For a non-EU international student, it rises to €2,160 a month, compared with €1,101 for a French student without a needs-based grant who has moved out of their parents' home. That is a gap of €1,058 a month, or 96% more.
FAGE, for its part, looks only at the month of September. Its start-of-year cost indicator, published on 2 September 2026, calculates what a 19-year-old first-year bachelor's student without a needs-based grant spends at the start of the academic year: the first month of everyday living costs (€1,145) and one-off start-of-year expenses (€2,095). Total: €3,240, a record, up 25% since 2020. For a non-EU student, FAGE arrives at €7,023, almost €3,800 more.
So the two figures do not measure the same thing: one is a monthly out-of-pocket cost, the other the cost of the start of the year alone. Yet they reach the same conclusion.
| Indicator | Reference student | Non-EU student | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly out-of-pocket cost (UNEF) | €1,101 (French student without a needs-based grant) | €2,160 | +€1,058 (+96%) |
| Start-of-year cost (FAGE) | €3,240 (first-year student without a needs-based grant) | €7,023 | almost €3,800 |
Four 2026 measures behind the gap
The gap has widened so much this year because four measures that came into force in 2026 directly target non-EU students. UNEF and FAGE cite the same ones.
Tuition fees: €2,902 for a bachelor's, €3,950 for a master's
The first measure concerns your tuition. Since the start of the 2019 academic year, non-EU students enrolled in a bachelor's or master's programme at a public university have paid differentiated tuition fees. In 2026-2027, these amount to €2,902 a year for a bachelor's and €3,950 for a master's, compared with €178 and €255 for other students. We cover all the 2026-2027 tuition fees in a dedicated article.
What changes in 2026 is that these fees are now paid in full far more often. Until now, many universities exempted a large share of their international students. A decree of 19 May 2026 caps these exemptions: no more than 30% of each university's international students in 2026-2027, then 25% in 2027-2028 and eventually 20%.
APL: abolished for students without a needs-based grant since 1 July 2026
The second measure hits rent directly. The APL, a housing allowance paid by the family allowance fund (CAF), covers part of your rent. Since 1 July 2026, students who are nationals of a country outside the EU, the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland are no longer entitled to it unless they receive a needs-based grant. Those who work or are on a work-study programme (alternance) may remain eligible, and refugees and stateless persons keep their entitlement.
Residence permit: fees doubled since 1 May 2026
The last two measures weigh on your visa budget. First, the 2026 Finance Act raised the fees on residence permits. For a student, the fee for a first residence permit went up from €75 to €150, the fee for a renewal from €75 to €100, and the fee for the long-stay visa that serves as a residence permit (VLS-TS) from €50 to €100.
VLS-TS visa: €877.50 a month in resources since 1 August
To get it, you must prove you have a minimum level of resources: for applications submitted since 1 August 2026, this income threshold has gone up from €615 to €877.50 a month, or €10,530 over twelve months.
Housing, the biggest item in the budget
In both surveys, rent remains students' biggest expense: UNEF reports an average rent of €627 a month in the private sector (+2.87% in a year), €857 in Île-de-France and €426 in a CROUS residence, the public student housing run by the regional student services bodies. FAGE uses an average rent of €637.
Yet without APL, most international students now have to cover this cost in full. According to FAGE, 52% of students have less than €200 a month left once their rent is paid.
Start-of-year costs
At the start of the year, one-off costs come on top: FAGE counts, among other things, €502 for course materials, €178 in tuition fees and €105 for the CVEC, the student and campus life contribution that every student in initial higher education pays before enrolling, unless exempt.
In short, all of this explains why international students in France are in an increasingly precarious situation.
What the student organisations are calling for
In response to these figures, both organisations are calling for change. UNEF demands the repeal of differentiated fees. FAGE calls for the withdrawal of all four 2026 measures, access to needs-based grants for non-EU students from the moment they arrive in France, and for institutions to cover the costs needed for their programmes, such as equipment. It also wants to make rent control, which caps rents in certain cities, permanent.
Finally, FAGE is urging the Senate to pass the bill that would index grants to inflation and pay them over twelve months. Adopted by the National Assembly on 11 June 2026, the text was sent to the Senate the following day and has not yet been examined there. It would only apply to students who are entitled to these grants.
Your budget for the 2027 intake
Our takeaway is that the 2026 measures make your expenses considerably heavier. In a single year, studying in France has become markedly more expensive for non-EU students: their out-of-pocket cost is close to double that of a French student, and their start of the academic year also costs twice as much.
If you are planning to arrive in September 2027, factor these changes into the budget for your stay in France.
Visa vs real budgetthe €877.50 a month required for the visa is an administrative minimum. The out-of-pocket cost UNEF measures for a non-EU student is more than twice as high: build your budget on rents and prices in your city, not on this legal threshold.
Our advice: start from rents in the city where you will study, which you can compare in our housing section, add your start-of-year costs and keep some margin for your first few months. Better to arrive with a bigger budget than to find out once you are there that you planned too tight.
Sources
- Service-Public – University: some non-EU international students will pay more from the start of the 2026 academic year
- Service-Public – APL abolished for non-EU students without a needs-based grant from 1 July 2026
- Service-Public – Residence permits: higher fees for foreign nationals from 1 May
- French Embassy in Panama – Études en France: change to the income threshold for student visas
- UNEF – 2026 survey on changes in the student cost of living
- FAGE – Press kit: 2026 student start-of-year cost indicator
- L'Étudiant – According to UNEF, the student cost of living rose by 1.66% in 2026
