Campus France’s 10th Seminar on reception: ten years of progress in students’ reception

So, the seminar gave positive and encouraging messages, despite a not-always encouraging context, to celebrate ten years of discussions, exchanges, ideas, projects, but also concrete achievements and successes at the service of reception of international students. There’s been so much progress in the reception and support of these students over ten years! This initial analysis by Donatienne Hissard Director-General of Campus France, who reminded during the opening of this tenth seminar everything that France had implemented in terms of appeal: the “Bienvenue en France” strategy and the certification of institutions, the digital platform to obtain visas, the increase of the offer of study courses in English, a better coordination between the various stakeholders of the “chain of reception”, etc. These examples of actions show that over ten years, “the reception of international students has become a professional activity”.

Hosting in Lorraine

The “hosting power” of the seminar spoke just before Hissard. The first, Hélène Boulanger, Dean of the University of Lorraine, reminded that hosting the anniversary seminar in Nancy was not the result of chance: the Lorraine region is historically “a land of welcome” and welcoming international students and researchers makes perfect sense in Nancy, a city marked by a strong presence of universities and a long tradition of sharing knowledge.

The same goes from Matthieu Klein, President of the Nancy Metropolis and mayor of the city, for whom Nancy is a “world city”, the “beating heart” of all of a region, a young, dynamic region at the heart of Europe, with a strong commitment in research and innovation. The city of Nancy has 9,900 international students (up 37% since 2018), which means that one out of five inhabitants is a student! This number shows the “amazing relation” uniting the people of Nancy to the academic and university world. To implement this relation in the real world, two announcements were made: a discussion of the Metropolis to fund scholarships for inward mobility and the creation of an International City, a “totem location”, a one-stop desk or a “concierge service”, to “increase the standards of reception of international students” and improve the relations between students and the economy of the region, including the economic development agency and the research and innovation agency.

Being positive

Benjamin Leperchey, deputy to the Director General of the Ministry of higher education and research, then spoke during the opening of the seminar to insist on the continuity of actions from the State in terms of foreign students reception. For the representative of one of the two supervising ministries of the agency, the attractiveness strategy oriented towards international students and researchers is a priority of the State, which aims at drawing in France the best candidates, whether they are at Master or Doctorate level, or in research. And it seems even more necessary to inform beforehand students applying to come about the cost of study in France: “too many students are in financial difficulty in our country”. Of course, efforts should continue on this matter to support students in difficulty, especially on the issue of housing, a government priority. To this end, the mechanism of differentiated access may be used as a lever to better welcome international students in institutions.

Leperchey also discussed the vote of the French immigration law to state that international students’ mobility was not or poorly known from the general public, and that it was necessary to promote it with a “positive approach” of student exchanges. A survey about alumni led by Campus France provides results supporting these positive messages to show how much work has been achieved in terms of reception: increasing the number of institutions certified “Bienvenue en France” and the appointment in prefectures of an “appeal specialist”, which should at this level turn the appeal of France as something real.

Being realistic

This positive approach was also the angle of the Director General of Campus France when closing the opening session. For Donatienne Hissard, it is necessary to be realistic: the recent political debates have shown that the reception of foreign students in our country was not to be taken for granted, and this question is also debated in other host countries. So, it is necessary to “convince all our neighbours” that welcoming international students will improve the reception of all students, and that this “opening will benefit all” and that “international students are a chance for France” to quote the French Minister of higher education and research.

Being realistic also means facing “unsufferable difficulties” experienced by some foreign students in our country, with difficulties feeding “the defiance of some of our fellow citizens”. It is thus necessary to “convince”, and to this regard the survey on alumni conducted by Campus France shows many good signs. “These success stories prove the work on reception that we have achieved and encourage us to push our actions even further”, Hissard concluded.

Going further

This is also the angle of the first speech about the reception and support of international students in the CROUS, by Bénédicte Durand, new President of the CNOUS (National Centre of University and School Work). The president reminds that missions of the “Work” include “welcoming most fragile students, regardless of their nationality”. The idea of the CROUS is to “be the voice of France’s appeal” by welcoming all these students in all aspects of services possible, including social aspects, for scholarship holders and non-scholarship holders. The CROUS network includes today about 55,000 international students and dedicates 25 to 30% of its housing stock to them. International students represent 38% of housed students.

“Without pessimism, but also without denial”, it is worth noting that, according to Bénédicte Durand, international students welcomed in CROUSes have in majority “a consistent social profile with our first mission”. But they often are “the most fragile among the fragile”, those who “most frequently and intensively contact our social workers”. And among them, “free-movers”, i.e. 20,000 out the 55,000 welcomed by the CROUSes, are “the most isolated, the most exposed to all psychological, social and academic risks”. The “free-movers matter” is thus asked... How to welcome them better: more than social support, it is necessary “to care even more to the quality of their integration”, promoting especially “an allocation policy in our housing to foster a mix of national and international people”. To achieve this, the President of the CNOUS offered that CROUSes “could also benefit from the "Bienvenue en France" label for their own actions”. This is a way to dig deeper the idea to better receive, and acknowledge the work done.

Applying a strong-willed policy

Going further is also the angle of the traditional and well-expected round table about visas and residence permits, which first gave the mic to Arnaud Mentré, assistant director for visas at the French Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Territories, who spoke about a “strong-willed policy”. The Ministry of the Interior stated that a visa policy that is “open and ambitious” aims at attracting in France “target publics” while keeping control over immigration. And the Ministry representative stresses that “international students are included in the target publics”.

Ludovic Guinamant, assistant director to residence and work at the same ministry, talked about two additional issues. The first issue is about the latest circular (May 2024) about the creation and implementation of “referents of attractiveness” in all the prefectural network, which will mobilise senior officials, secretary generals or deputy secretaries. These senior officials, trained and able to make decisions, will “find solutions” regarding residence permits, for example by encouraging professional integration and the transition between studies and work. The publication of this circular is truly an opportunity to constructively structure high-level discussion between institutions and each Prefecture about recurrent issues in relation with residence permits and international students.

The second strong point of the speech regarded an explanation focus about the processes to transition from the student status to employee status. For the latter, Guinamant offered to guide graduate international students towards the “talent card”, which seems to be the most flexible program to transition from studies to professional activity, and even more so in its new format. The talent title, which is linked to a Master degree level and delivered to specific highly qualified employees and researchers categories, is pluriannual and exempts from requesting a work permit and facilitates family reunifications for the holder’s close ones.

Fighting precariousness and ill-being

In addition to these positive aspects, precariousness and all efforts deployed to face it seem however to have been the motto of this tenth edition of the seminar, which dedicated a workshop and a round table to the matter. Though the workshop on support for staff welcoming international students in institutions revealed some disarray from the staff concerned facing a precariousness they most often could only observe (without being able to concretely act), the round table about the health and well-being of international students tried to answer the worries expressed by bringing solutions.

Christine Salomé, in charge of the mission about the health of students at the ministry of higher education and research, thus detailed the existing offer of services, beginning with the Students Care Services (SSE in French, which replaced SSUs), open to all students and implemented both in universities and higher education schools. 62 SSEs are currently open on the French territory, and their number should grow quickly. For 31 services, access to care is guaranteed: the practitioner of the service may become the attending physician of any student. SSE missions include a “base package” with mental health, sexual health, addiction behaviours, food health and sport. The “mental health” aspect has already been in focus, for example with trainings for “mental health rescuers” (accessible to all public agents) and BAPUs (French acronym for University psychology help office) which offer 12 free sessions to all students (and not 8 anymore).

Confirming existing actions

In addition to this concrete progress, the Seminar on Reception also reminded the existing actions. Confirming existing actions means first talking about efforts made for alumni, a network including about 400,000 members today from 134 countries, in relation with 4,000 international partners including 1,500 companies. The round table that presented the results of the Campus France survey about the future of alumni, a survey led with the Verian (ex-Kantar public) institute and registering about 10,000 participants, revealed that “efforts pay off”: 96% of alumni who participated in the study declared that having studied in France has been an asset in their career.

Another existing action, the “Bienvenue en France” certification of institutions is “a massive internationalisation weapon”, as humanistically said one of the speakers, was granted to 156 institutions. The seminar shed light on examination of institutions as part of this certification implemented by 77 independent experts. As experts said, visits of institutions are made in a benevolent approach and as a role of “peer to peer” advice. Nathalie Fick, Director of international and European relations at the University of Lorraine and expert, thinks that certification could eventually “legitimate the role of International Relations services in institutions”.

And the last topic, discussed by Erasmus + agency, was the possibility to use European projects called “cooperation partnerships” to fund projects aiming at improving the reception in higher education institutions. The idea here was, according to Erasmus + speakers, to “understand the mechanisms and use them”. Indeed, these cooperation partnerships are a financial resource that should be usefully registered for reception projects in French institutions.

And there “European complexification” that should be discussed, according to the Campus France Director General, who close the two days of work by calling on institutions that would want to set-up the 2025 session of the Seminar on reception, a now key event!                  

A full report will soon be sent to all participants of the seminar, with links to the PowerPoint presentations of speakers and other documents.