The press conference on the start of the 2022 student year presents an update on the major guidelines to come

Students

The launch of the academic year on 15 September was an opportunity for Sylvie Retailleau, Minister for Higher Education and Research, to give her first press conference. She took stock of the major guidelines for the coming year, in the areas of student life, guidance and training courses, and a new policy for sites.

The ministry is offering a “zoom session on the main guidelines”, with five points to be highlighted: solidarity with Ukraine, scholarship grants, access to the master’s courses, student life and entrepreneurship.

Strong solidarity with Ukraine

Looking back over the past year, Retailleau emphasised the “strong solidarity” shown in France for students and researchers from Ukraine. Responding to a “duty of solidarity”, France immediately passed emergency measures to facilitate the reception of students and researchers from Ukraine.

Such measures included action to promote the integration of displaced students from Ukraine into French higher education, with the “implementation of a platform to put Ukrainian students in contact with French higher education institutions with the support of the Campus France agency”.

Towards a reform of scholarship grants

Retailleau also recalled that other emergency measures have been deployed to protect the purchasing power of students to counter inflation: revaluation of scholarships based on social criteria, housing subsidies, extension of the 1 euro meals programme for the most precarious students, freezing of university registration fees and CROUS residence rents.

On this point, Retailleau announced that this new academic year would be the occasion for the Government to open discussions on the reform of scholarships. A consultation should therefore take place in October in order to redefine the financial aid for access to higher education.

A new access to the master’s degree

Another major project is the creation in 2023 of a national platform dedicated to students for access to a master’s degree, with the aim of reducing the tension between supply and demand at university. “The objective is clear: to improve the service provided to students by grouping all courses on a single platform”, the Minister stressed.

The implementation of this platform, which aims to “make the recruitment process more fluid”, is planned for 2023. It will be a “one-stop desk for the submission of applications” which “will be based on a national timetable for the responses given to applicants”.

Regional schemes for student life

In October, “regional discussions” will also be held, the purpose of which is to create synergies between other student life themes: health, culture, sport, inclusion and solidarity. Retailleau declared that there is indeed a "heterogeneity of regions and places of study”. This is why, she continued, “a scale at region level is most appropriate for defining student life policy”. Led in the regions by the rectorates, these territorial exchanges will also focus on training, guidance and integration. They should lead to the drawing up of regional student life master plans for each academic region in June 2023, which will then be translated into “student life master plans for the institutions”.

Promoting the entrepreneurial spirit

Another point addressed was student entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial spirit continues to grow through the Pôles étudiants pour l’innovation, le transfert et l’entrepreneuriat (PEPITE, Student Centres for Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship) programme. The conference press kit recalls that 33 centres have been created since 2014 on higher education sites and that the mentoring network to support young entrepreneurs has been strengthened with more than 1,300 mentors referenced by the PEPITEs to help project leaders. And PEPITEs should now have a “unique management tool, called Pépitizy, to supervise the support of these young entrepreneurs”.