This is the start of a long process for final year high school students who wish to continue their studies after the baccalaureate. Wednesday December 18, the Parcoursup platform opens on the Internet, with all possible training courses.
For several years, the distribution of students in different French cities has been evolving, with more and more medium-sized cities, even small towns. For example, Limoges, more famous for its porcelain than for its university, is now home to 17,500 students. That’s 2,000 more than 10 years ago.
Pauline, in her 3rd year of medicine, comes from the Périgueux region and naturally should have ended up in Bordeaux for her studies. But “the more it goes to Bordeaux, the more expensive it is”she says, it is therefore a financial reason which made her fall back on Limoges, where she pays 300 euros for accommodation instead of 600 euros in Bordeaux.
This is one of the attractions of Limoges for students: a cost of living much lower than others. In its annual study, the Unef (National Union of Students of France) even ranks it as the cheapest university town in France.
A friend of Pauline, Stella, made the same choice, she who comes from the Paris region. She was able to find her apartment in 10 days “from a distance”without even visiting it. In addition, transport is also half as expensive in Limoges as in Bordeaux, and even the price of preparation for the medical exam is four to five times lower than in Paris.
In terms of student life, the two young women are delighted: “There, once we’ve passed our midterms, we’re going to spend our afternoon in the city center walking around because it’s super nice, assure Stella. The Christmas market is really good!” “We feel really good here”confirms Pauline.
“The advantage of studying in Limoges is that there aren’t many of us; we all know each other and we easily become friends.”
Pauline, medical studentat franceinfo
This proximity is also what the president of the University of Limoges highlights. In a site on a human scale, Isabelle Klock-Fontanile can work more easily with communities and different stakeholders to help students, an issue that is all the more important when we know that half are on scholarships. “It happened to me to receive students in great difficulty, she saysI make a call to the general director of Crous who sends me university restaurant ticketsshe says. It’s because we have these extremely fluid relationships that we can be as close as possible to the needs of students.”
The University of Limoges also operates in the small towns of Limousin: Guéret, Egletons, Brive, Tulle. This allows the most modest families to consider higher education at lower cost, without self-censorship, sometimes with great success: “In Guéret, we have social career training, we have almost doubled the reception capacity in two years because it is very, very in demand”indicates the university president. The key to attracting young people, according to her, is also to develop very specific areas of research, which bring students from far away, sometimes from the other side of the world. Masters degrees in banking risk, for example, or ceramics are very successful here.
Attracting and retaining students is a challenge for the city of Limoges today, because the city’s 140,000 inhabitants are aging. The presence of young people is vital for the dynamism of the city. The town hall therefore tries to bring in as many as possible, by financing student associations, by lending sports or cultural infrastructures “A young person who does not have many means, whose parents have apprehensions about large urban areas, will find his place in Limoges”assures a municipal employee.
Limoges is not the only city to benefit from this trend, far from it, of course. François Rio, general delegate of the Association of University Cities of France, highlights the quality of life in smaller towns: “There has always been a tendency for the largest cities to attract the most students, but in recent years we have observed a slowdownhe explains, because, among other things, the quality of life has declined.”
“In big cities, housing is more expensive, transport is crowded, so it’s true that medium-sized cities attract a lot of students.”
François Rio, general delegate of the Association of University Cities of Franceat franceinfo
Thus, according to this trend, “It’s an increase of about 100 000 students between 2001 and 2020″he says, for cities like La Rochelle, Annecy, Le Mans, Vannes, Lorient for example, which have attracted a lot in recent years. But this postponement also benefits smaller towns, which host university branches: Evreux, with +24% of students in 3 years, La Roche-sur-Yon, with +18%.
We also owe this evolution in the distribution of students in France to the platforms: Parcoursup and more recently “MonMaster” have made higher education offers more visible throughout France.
The Association of University Cities of France is considering a “student city” label to recognize the efforts made by certain cities on the quality of student life: places to eat, access to culture, sport, solutions in terms of health, on the associative life. It should see the light of day for the next municipal elections in 2026.
