How is the attractiveness of regions and cities changing for students from around the world?

On 19 May 2022, Campus France and its partners unveiled the results of the new edition of the Observatoire territorial de la mobilité internationale des étudiants et chercheurs. This report presents the key figures on the international mobility in French regions and cities, as well as territorial internationalisation strategies. Many concrete examples present how actions from various levels of territories complement those of institutions present in them.

And for the first time, Campus France published with the main report a series of 14 Focus Régions and 17 Focus Métropoles presenting detailed results of each territory.

Download the publication and the 14 “focus région” and “17 focus métropoles”

This study was commissioned by the Délégation à l’Action extérieure des collectivités locales (Delegation for the External Action of Local Authorities, DAECT/Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs), and carried out by Campus France in collaboration with Régions de France, France Urbaine and the Association des villes universitaires de France (Association of French University Towns, AVUF).

Attractiveness is growing in all regions, but at various paces

“France is one of the most attractive countries in the world for international students” recalled Donatienne Hissard, Director-General of Campus France. “It has 370,000 students in mobility, and this success is mostly due to the commitment of regions and cities”. In national average, figures went up 23% since 2014. Over this period, international student mobility grew in all regions, the Sud and Grand Est regions registering the sharpest increases (35% and 28%, respectively). At academic level, the sharpest increases occurred in Reims (+46%) and Nice (+39%). On the contrary, Normandy and Burgundy – Franche-Comté are experimenting a slower growth (+14%).

Distribution of foreign students by region

Over one foreign student out of two (57%) is registered in three regions: Île-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Occitanie, and the share of foreign students ranges from 18% (Île-de-France) to 6% (Corsica, overseas departments and regions), with a 17% average.

As to outward mobility, the four regions sending more students are: Île-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Hauts de France, and Nouvelle Aquitaine. Let’s remind that at world scale, France is the 6th sender country of student for degree mobility.

For Carole Delga, President of the Occitanie region and President of Régions de France, “the mobility of students and researchers benefits all the local ecosystems and enables strong links to be forged between cities and regions in different countries in Europe and the world. As ambassadors for their respective territories, students and researchers thus contribute to breaking the walls between knowledge and approaches”.

The newest action of cities is in favour of internationalisation

More recently, cities have taken on the promotion of incoming mobility in particular, mobilising human and budgetary resources to this end.

In Paris-Saclay, Strasbourg, Grenoble and Nice, cities have a higher-than-average student rate of 17%. The number of foreign students has risen very rapidly in Paris Saclay (+90%), Cergy Pontoise (+53%), Grand Nancy (+38%) and Bordeaux Métropole (+36%).

Cities also provide valuable support to local associations and institutions fostering the mobility of students and researchers, and promote supervised mobility through twinning with other cities.

For Johanna Rolland, Mayor of Nantes, President of Nantes Métropole, and President of France urbaine, “University cities and towns are deeply committed, and especially by providing financial support to higher education establishments. In the coming years, they will further strengthen their cooperation. The key to success lies in these pragmatic and intelligent alliances between territories and the government. They contribute greatly to the attractiveness of the country and to local dynamics in the long term”.

For Catherine Vautrin, President of the Urban Community of Reims and of the Association of University Cities in France, “international students can be ambassadors for our territories, and our local authorities must do their utmost to make their study or research stay a happy and fruitful life experience”.