The price of being a student in France has risen once more. According to the 19th annual survey by the student union Unef, published on Monday, August 17, the cost of student life increased by 1.66% in 2026. This latest jump adds to a troubling trend: since Emmanuel Macron was elected president in 2017, the cost of a year of study has surged by 35%.
Monthly Costs Now Average €1,300
The study reveals that the average monthly out-of-pocket expense for students, after accounting for any financial aid they receive, now stands at €1,300. That is €74 more per month than in 2025. The union attributes the increase to several key factors. Average monthly rent in the private sector rose by 2.87% year-on-year to €627.11. Even in subsidized Crous residences, rents increased by 1.04% to an average of €426.36. Transport costs for non-scholarship students climbed 2.29% to €278.59 on average, while food prices saw a 0.87% inflationary bump.
Rising Fees and the CVEC Burden
University registration fees have jumped by 37% since 2017, according to Unef. A major driver is the mandatory Student and Campus Life Contribution (CVEC), which was introduced at €90 in 2018 and is set to reach €105 for the upcoming academic year. The union says these figures paint a grim picture of student finances.
“These catastrophic numbers hide the lives of students who must work alongside their studies or abandon them because they cannot afford to meet their needs,” Manon Moret, secretary general of Unef, told AFP.
International and Overseas Students Hit Hardest
The burden is not shared equally. Extra-European foreign students now pay twice as much to study in France. They are described by the union as the “first victims of the government’s austerity policies,” due to the summer removal of personalized housing aid (APL) and the application of differentiated tuition fees. Students from French overseas territories are also identified as “the great forgotten of public policies,” spending between €314 and €408 more per year than their counterparts in mainland France.
Unef argues that successive governments under Macron have pursued “a broader logic of state disengagement from its public service missions in higher education.” The union points to chronically underfunded universities, Crous services suffocated by budget cuts, a buried scholarship reform, and unfulfilled promises for student housing as evidence of this trend.
