This new Eurydice report provides a detailed overview of the national public fee and support systems in place across European countries. The report contains key points which enable readers to have a good overall understanding of the topic while the national diagrams aim to show the main characteristics of each system. Download National student fee and support systems.
The national system information sheets aim to give an overview of the public fee and support system. The diagram aims to show the main characteristics of the system, while the text aims to provide complementary key points to enable the reader to have a good overall understanding. Information refers to public or government-dependent private higher education institutions but not to private higher education institutions. Information covers students in the first and second cycles only, while fee and support arrangements for doctoral students are not covered. Information on subsidised accommodation, transportation and canteens is also not included.
France
Fees (2013/14)
• The amount of fees per year fixed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research is EUR 183 in the first cycle (L1, L2, L3) and EUR 254 in the second cycle (M1, M2). However, a number of universities have decided to add associated costs related to specific services (e.g. for diplomas related to continuing learning and training). In some public universities, the tuition fees can reach more than EUR 2 000 per year.
• Fees in the grandes écoles and Engineering Schools vary, but the most common amount is EUR 550 per year. However, tuition fees in some of them reach up to EUR 10 000 per year, depending on family income. However, there are grandes écoles which not only deliver education free of charge, but may even pay some students (such students are prospective civil servants and receive a wage from the State), e.g. in école polytechnique and écoles normales supérieures.
• Students who receive a grant (34.7 % of the student population in 2012/13) are exempted from fees.
Support (2013/14)
• Grants are awarded on the basis of financial need to students that are less than 28 years of age.
• The amount awarded for the need-based grant depends on the assessment of social criteria. Students are classified into categories based on the family income; within the framework of a reform of the grants (2013), a new category has been created for lower middle-class students, and a new one for the most deprived students. All grant holders get tuition for free and social security contribution waivers (EUR 211). In 2013/14 the amount of the annual grant varies from EUR 0 (for lower middle-class students who only get the waivers) to EUR 5 500. In addition, students having a need-based grant can get a complementary merit-based grant (based on school performance from the baccalauréat results) which amounts to EUR 1 800.
• Loans are also available. In 2008, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research started a new policy to get loans easier for all students aged less than 28. It provides loans with a maximum amount of EUR 15 000, guaranteed by a special fund 'OSEO'. Less than 0.1 % of university students take out such a loan.
• Parents are eligible for tax relief if students are financially dependent on them and are less than 25 years old. The amount of tax relief is proportional to the amount of taxable income of the household.
• Family allowances are paid for two or more dependent children that are under 20 years old. The minimum amount is EUR 128.57 per month and increases with the number of eligible children; as of 5th child the amount is EUR 164.73 for each child. An additional amount of EUR 64.29 per month is paid for every child that is aged 16-20 years.
Download National student fee and support systems.

Minerva Schools of KGI doesn't yet have accreditation, a campus or even a full faculty roster, but it is offering something even Harvard can't - four years of free tuition for its first matriculating class.
The San Francisco-based Minerva Project, an ambitious effort to remake the higher education model, announced its tuition plan on Tuesday in hopes of attracting some of the world's most talented and academically competitive students for the class that will enroll in the fall of 2014.
Although many details of the new school are still to be ironed out, students in subsequent years will pay tuition of $10,000 a year along with about $19,000 annually for room and board - still well below the cost of many other top U.S. universities that can run upwards of $50,000 and $60,000 a year. More...