On the face of it France’s status as a study destination is formidable, if not unassailable. Ranked fourth in the world, according to UNESCO statistics, behind the US, UK and Australia, France has welcomed around 290,000 students a year for the last couple of years, or 7.2% of the international student body.
This is an increase of 85% since 1998, when France’s doors were really opening, and since 2010, this is an increase of 11%.
So, it came as a surprise to some when France’s Higher Education Minister Geneviève Fioraso claimed in May that the country’s position as a top non-English speaking destination for international students was “fragile”.
“Our country has lost ground in the last 10 years” Fioraso said ,”going from third to fifth place in the ranking of the most attractive countries for higher education [rankings do depend on the source].”
She continued, “The impact has not only been quantitive but also, more importantly, qualitative. The best students, particularly in science, are turning away from our country to find better destinations for their education.”
In response to the perceived crisis the minister proposed extended two-to-three year visas (matching Australia in terms of generosity and contrasting sharply with the UK scrapping its post-study work visa), rolling out French language lessons to all non-French speaking students and a range of other initiatives to ease the stay of international students.
Fioraso also promised to aid students passage to employment post-graduation, clawing back the damage done by 2010’s ‘Circularise du Mai’ which restricted non-EU students’ rights to live and work in France.
Morocco, China, Algeria, Tunisia and Senegal comprise the top five countries of origin for France’s international student population, so it is not hard to see how this measure was adversely impactful.
More controversially, Fiaroso has mooted the approval of English medium education
More controversially, Fiaroso has mooted the approval of English medium education, currently prohibited at universities for most courses. It is a prospect that has split politicians and academics, but a facility that has paid dividend for destinations such as the Netherlands, Germany and Malaysia who have seen according increases in their international students populations.
The frontline organisation charged with selling France’s higher education overseas (74% of foreign students are enrolled at a French university) is government agency, Campus France. The PIE News spoke to CF’s director of promotion Olivier Chiche-Portiche last month. Chiche-Portiche explained that France that the fragility of which Fiaroso spoke was down to its relative ‘newbie’ status:
“UNESCO says we are the biggest non-Anglophone study destination but it is important to keep our marketing efforts up, because we started quite late as a country. I guess we had a reputation for offering high quality education but we felt we didn’t feel the need to take it to other countries.”
Groupement FLE, a body representing the French language teaching sector, feels that France retains a USP. “France is certainly having to share students wanting to learn French with other destinations, notably Canada,” says the organisation’s president, Patrick de Bouter.
“Meanwhile, other languages, particularly Spanish, are becoming more and more popular with younger learners. But France still benefits from its worldwide exposure, as it is spoken in most parts of the world.”
Forecasting capacity constraints
Campus France and Groupement FLE recognise that various factors will define the ebb and flow of student numbers in the future, such as whether other host countries relax or restrict further visa constraints. But capacity is an issue too – both in terms of educational facilities and housing:
“100, 000 new international students have joined France during the past 10 years,” a CampusFrance spokesperson reminds, “and so the French higher education system may find it difficult to host hundred of thousands more students in the 10 years to come.”
“In France there is still some scepticism about private operators profiting from education”
Minister Fioraso has said that she wants 40,000 new student houses built by 2017, anticipating the increase, one that could be assisted by more students coming from Africa (Francophone Africa already accounting for 50% of France’s HE students), South Korea, Brazil, Russia, India and China (France’s second biggest host country).
While the government is clearly providing infrastructure and incentives, Chiche-Portiche admits that, despite liaison with education agents in India, Brazil and Turkey, they are not considering formal training certificates for agents:
“Maybe we should consider these things, but it’s not our position at the moment. In France there is still some scepticism about private operators profiting from education so we need to come to an arrangement that makes everybody happy.”
ELS’s new pathway centre at Skema Business School in the south of France
In the private sector agents are already used, of course. Institutions like Skema Business School, whose MSc in Financial Markets and Investments is ranked 10th in the world by the FT, use agents to assist their establishment of global campuses.
Their sites currently include Paris, Lille, Nice, Suzhou, China and Raleigh, North Carolina in the US, and, according to Skema’s dean, Alice Guilhon, they plan expansion to Brazil, Russia and Africa – very much in line with minister Fioraso’s vision.
Skema has 6,400 students and is aiming for a 50% international student target; it is currently at 35% with students coming from over 40 countries. It has partnered with US English language giant ELS to launch an on-campus, English-medium pathway programme to its programmes in Nice – a bid to attract more students from markets where English is the preferred language of instruction. [more->]
Asked about Fioraso’s warnings about the market, Guilhon says: “we have a fantastic opportunity. France is attractive because of its welcome and culture, though we have to balance the fact that it is not the language of business and deliver programmes in English too.”
Skema’s is extending its global reach – it also plans to open a campus in Brazil – but Chiche-Portiche suggests that in general, France has been slow to grow offshore. Specialist schools like HEC, ESSEC and Central often have an offshore presence but it tends to be limited. There is also the French University in Cairo, the Ecole Centrale in Beijing and the Scientific and Technological University in Hanoi, but Chiche Portiche says that the country’s only very well known, large-scale branch campus is the Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Fioraso has signed with her Chinese counterpart the establishment of Paris Tech in Shanghai
“In general we’re behind, and Campus France is working with its university members to help them access information and advice on branching out overseas,” he says. “There is growing interest in it and the French regions are working together to promote campus development in markets like Brazil.”
There has also been a recent renewal of interest in North and West Africa with a number of French universities involved in courses in African institutions at Bachelor and Masters levels. Minister Fioraso herself has signed with her Chinese counterpart the establishment of Paris Tech in Shanghai, and the Qatari government recently signed an MOU with a group of institutions who will help prepare Qataris for study in France through French language pathways, not a facility widely used in France itself.
Although no exact figure could be obtained for the number of students at French offshore institutions it runs into the thousands and clearly the impetus is there.
Researching to assess reputation
Nevertheless, France’s efforts to engage foreign students are almost certain to be fixated on home turf. Detailed and recurring research by Campus France and opinion research body TNS Sofres shows a high level of satisfaction with various elements of the French study experience.
Campus France has researched foreign students and found 9/10 would recommend France as a study destination
Over 20,000 students were polled in 2010/11 across various indicators. It was found that 9 out of 10 would recommend France as a study destination; 45% of those choosing France for the quality of the education, 37% for their own understanding of the French language, 33% for the value of the degrees and 31% for reasons of cultural interest.
Over 90% cited a cultural or touristic interest in France and Groupement FLE know that this is important.
“France benefits from a fantastic worldwide reputation as a tourist destination, with many varied regions and landscapes, not to mention its world-renowned ‘savour-vivre’ typified by its good food and wine, culture and fashion,” says de Bouter.
“Schools teaching French as a foreign language reflect this diversity, in terms of their location, size and course range. As well as learning the language, students can take part in a varied programme of activities and excursions to help them discover the country and its culture.”
“This attitude is grounded in the national predisposition towards all that is public”
Some of the buoyant private French language teaching companies in the country do complain of a focus on the “public sector” from government-backed organisations. “There is a general reluctance amongst the public structures supporting French education to accept the essential basic input of language schools in the process,” comments Tom Maitland of language school French in Normandy.
“This is grounded firstly in the national predisposition towards all that is public as opposed to private, even/especially when the latter proves more effective, but also in the intellectual snobbery of the educational establishment.”
He adds, “Luckily the private sector has not been quietly waiting for official backing.”
Smoother integration between HE and the language teaching sector, also represented by l”Officeand UNOSEL, could help link access into the French medium opportunities.
Other challenges, identified in ‘Les GrandesTendancies’ survey by Campus France were criticisms from students polled such as the cost of living (53% dissatisfied rate), bureaucracy (53%), accommodation (45%) and the difficulty of integrating (33%).
These annoyances are not, of course, the major stumbling blocks that France will face in holding its own in the international student market. Competition with Spanish as a language of business, the slow build of the agent network and English medium education because of institutional resistance may also stymie rapid growth. The absence of pathway courses could be another criticism levelled at the French market, but many HE institutions have their own French language courses already.
Like the hexagon the country is sometimes likened to, France has many facets, ones that will continue to attract students to it. Meanwhile many of the students are coming from the right places, places like Africa and China, where the trend of students travelling overseas has been particularly marked.
• This article appears in The PIE Review 3, available now.
