Row over international student fees as Strasbourg looks to strike off non-payers
Some 40 students are facing not being able to complete their studies as they have not paid 16 times more than the standard fees
Dozens of students at Strasbourg face not being able to complete their courses (image for illustration only)
fizkes/Shutterstock.
A row has erupted over Strasbourg University’s announcement this year that it plans to strike off foreign students who have not paid in full ‘international fees’ 16 times higher than those paid by French-resident and EU-national students.
The decision has highlighted this policy of higher fees, which may be applied to any students of non-EU nationalities coming from abroad, including Britons post Brexit.
In theory, a law titled ‘Welcome to France’ from 2019, requires French universities to apply international fees at a (relatively) high rate set nationally, however various exemptions exist. Reportedly, however, most universities have largely disregarded the rule considering that it goes against their academic values.
In the current 2025-2026 academic year, Strasbourg University, which has a new president, appears to have taken a harder line, with the new president noting that permitted exemptions had been exceeded previously.
At present around 40 students, mostly from Africa and studying masters courses, are facing not being able to complete their years despite attending classes and taking exams, because they have not fully paid the €3,941 fees (compared to €254 French/EU fees). The university considers they have not properly completed their academic inscription, due to the failure to fully pay.
It previously stated it cannot let students off as it would be unfair to those who have paid, however it is reportedly in discussions with the students to see if case by case solutions can be found.
In this academic year it said that after all exemptions – both those set nationally and those agreed by Strasbourg – were applied, only 310 international students were liable to pay in full.
There is disagreement over whether these students knew about the higher fees - or should have known from information available before starting - or only learnt about them on arrival in Strasbourg.
The university states they are informed via the Campus France website, the university’s own site and their own governments' sites.
However, one student told Le Monde: “When I was accepted there was no information about higher fees being applied for the masters. It was only in September 2025 that I learnt this, which scared me. There was no chance of going anywhere else at that point.”
Unions backing the students also point to the difficulty for many of these students to pay, coming as they largely do from very low-income countries, especially on top of the fact that to obtain a student visa they are required to place €7,400 in a bank account.
Some are said to have resorted to taking on night-time jobs exceeding the 20 hours/week officially permitted to student visa holders.
Minister wants rules to be applied more stictly
The controversy comes also as the higher education minister, Philippe Baptiste, said in an interview with Le Parisien last month that universities should no longer “enact massive exonerations” and that “the rule is higher fees; exemption is the exception”.
At present official rules automatically exempt certain non-EU nationals including: doctoral students, those who have been French fiscal residents for at least two years and others with long-term residency rights, those on exchange schemes and students with a French consular grant.
Officially, universities may apply other exemptions if they wish, up to the level of no more than 10% of the student body (Strasbourg exempts bachelor's students, for example). In Strasbourg, non-EU students represent 17%.
The current annual international fee for an undergraduate degree is €2,895.
While this is high compared to €178 for French/EU students, it is still modest compared to UK ‘international’ fees which are at least £18,000/year or the US where fees for out-of-state and international students are at least $25,000/year.
Young Britons from Withdrawal Agreement families in France have up to now been able to pay UK ‘national’ fees (£9,250) to attend UK universities, but this is set to change from the university year 2028-2029.
