Foreign students contribute €1.6 billion

By Jane Marshall. Nearly 300,000 foreign students study in France every year and are not only ‘excellent ambassadors’ who promote the country when they leave – they also contribute a net €1.6 billion (nearly US$2 billion) to the state exchequer, according to a new inquiry.
The report Au-delà de l’Influence: l’Apport economique des etudiants etrangers en France, the first of its kind in France, examined the economic effects of foreign students studying here. It was carried out by the Institut BVA for the government agency Campus France and was based on a representative survey of 4,200 students.
France ranks as the third country globally in numbers of foreign students and is the leading non-Anglophone country in the world, according to the report. In 2013-14, 295,084 foreign students from 190 countries were enrolled in French institutions, an increase of 11% in five years.
The biggest regional group, 43%, came from Africa, followed by 26% from Europe, 19% from Asia, 8% from America and 4% from the Middle East. Read more...