University fees for non-EU students in France 2026-2027: what you actually pay

France has a reputation for near-free public university, and for a long time that reputation was accurate for everyone regardless of nationality. For students from outside Europe, that is no longer the default. Décret n° 2026-385 of 19 May 2026 generalises the droits d'inscription différenciés, the higher enrolment fees for non-European students, from the 2026-2027 academic year.

The numbers for 2026-2027

• Licence: €2,902 a year for a non-European student, against €178 for a student who is not concerned.
• Master: €3,950 a year for a non-European student, against €255 for a student who is not concerned.

That is the enrolment fee alone. The CVEC, at €105 for 2026-2027, is a separate payment you make to the CROUS before your university will validate your inscription, and it is the same amount for every student whatever their nationality.

Who is not concerned

The higher rate targets students who are not nationals of an EU member state, of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway), or of Switzerland. If you hold one of those nationalities you pay the ordinary rate, and nothing about the change applies to you.

Universities can still exempt you

The décret keeps a quota of exemptions that each establishment decides for itself. For 2026-2027 a university can exempt up to 30% of the foreign students it enrols, and that ceiling tightens in the following years. Students enrolled under a reciprocal agreement between a French institution and a foreign one sit outside that quota entirely, so a formal exchange or partnership programme is not competing for the same places.

In practice this means the fee is not always fixed at the moment you receive an admission letter. Establishments publish their own exemption criteria and their own deadline for asking, and those deadlines usually fall close to the start of term. If you are admitted and the amount is a problem, ask the scolarité or the service des relations internationales about an exonération before the inscription window closes rather than after.

Budget the whole rentrée, not just the fee

• The inscription fee itself, at the ordinary or the differentiated rate.
• The CVEC, €105, paid separately on cvec.etudiant.gouv.fr.
• Proof of resources for your titre de séjour: €877.50 a month for applications filed since 1 August 2026.
• Housing, keeping in mind that non-EU students without a bourse sur critères sociaux no longer receive APL.

The enrolment paperwork arrives as a stack of French documents in the same week as the CVEC attestation and whatever the préfecture wants for your titre. Upload the ones you cannot read to Mes Papiers and we'll tell you what each is asking for and by when, so a fee you could have contested is not something you find out about after the deadline.