Central government support
for student life
Executive summary
2022 Annual Public Report
2
The health crisis has profoundly changed the daily lives of students. The closure of
higher education institutions, announced by the President of the Republic on 14 March 2020,
has led to the interruption of many services, including those provided by university restaurants.
The business situation has reduced students’ opportunities for employment or work
-linked
training. The closing of borders has led to specific difficulties for foreign students, as well as
for overseas students in mainland France. The financial difficulties that some students may
have faced continued into the 2020-2021 academic year.
Late recognition of the consequences of the crisis
The public authorities put support mechanisms in place as and when difficulties were
brought to their attention by stakeholders working on the ground. Additional funding to address
the health crisis in 2020 can be estimated at €215.5m. Admittedly, the higher education
community has been highly engaged. However, the emergency measures were only belatedly
adapted to the difficulties that the crisis was causing for a large number of students on a
prolonged basis.
The support mechanisms, which are often too complex and too limited, both in terms of
the groups concerned and the vulnerabilities targeted, were initially focused on students with
grants, who were more easily identifiable. However, the pandemic has shown that a proportion
of non-scholarship students are clearly at risk of hardship in such circumstances. Not covered
by pre-existing mechanisms, this student population, whose size is difficult to assess, was
neglected in the early months of the crisis.
The extension of support measures, which only took place at the end of 2020, was late
and lags behind other emergency social aid measures decided by Central Government for
young non-students in situations of hardship.
3
Main support measures for student life
Source: Court of Accounts
4
Emergency management that has exposed structural flaws in the student
life support system
The crisis has revealed the exact nature and extent of student hardship, which was
previously unknown to the public authorities and their operators, CROUS and higher education
institutions alike. Lacking detailed knowledge of the needs of the student population and
reliable data on student hardship, public authorities were unprepared to deal with this major
crisis. Too many student life administration structures have had to learn to work together in
times of crisis, to react to information and uncertainty and to cope with gaps in communication
with students. During the crisis, they were also confronted with a risk that had previously not
been considered a priority: student health.
The result is, on the whole, disappointing; it is not commensurate with the issues at stake.
The crisis calls for better identification and quantification of students’ needs, better
consideration of health risks and more responsive allocation of grants based on social criteria,
as part of a renewed debate on the organisation of policies to support student life.
Recommendations
The Court makes the following recommendations:
1.
Establish reliable and shared indicators of student hardship in its various dimensions
(MESRI (Ministry of Higher Education and Research), MSS (Ministry of Solidarity and
Health), CNOUS (National Centre for University and School Activities), OVE (Student
Life Information Centre), Insee (French National Statistics Institute))
;
2.
Conduct a review of the CNOUS and CROUS network’s actions and student life support
mechanisms with regard to the objective of combating student hardship
(MESRI)
;
3.
Strengthen the resources of university health services and maintain their role as
prescribers under the new general system of reimbursement by health insurance for
access to psychologists
(MESRI, MSS)
;
4.
From the academic year 2023-2024, bring the rules for awarding grants on social
criteria in higher education into line with those in force in secondary education with
regard to taking account of income in the year N-1
(MESRI)
.