France

As one of the UK’s nearest neighbours, France is an obvious choice for study abroad, with easy travel with Eurostar via Paris to many parts of the country.

• France‘s 83 public universities are funded by the national government, which closely regulates the ’national diplomas’ granted by the universities. This system allows the universities to offer students an excellent education at a very affordable price.
• French universities are of high quality, with two Parisian institutions ranked in the Top 100 of the 2011 QS World University Rankings: Ecole Normale Suprieur (ENS) (33) and Ecole Polytechnique Paris Tech (36).
• Some 33 undergraduate programmes are entirely English-taught and a total of more than 450 at either undergraduate or master’s level.

Annual tuition rates at France’s public institutions are set by law and are identical for home and international students.

• The rates for the 2011 – 12 academic year range from£ 144 for an undergraduate course to£ 200 for a masters. Additional fees may be assessed for specific services.
• Tuition rates at private institutions – particularly schools of business and management – are higher (from£ 2,400 to£ 8,000 a year).
• Some specific scholarships exist for certain courses of study (doctors, engineers, etc) – details from the cultural service of the French Embassy in the country of origin.

French Universities are now increasingly using English as the medium of instruction especially in areas like management, engineering, political sciences etc for French and international students. For students lacking proficiency in French, it is usually taught as a subject in their curriculum during the course time.

In the Information Technology sector, France ranks second in Europe and fourth in the world. France is in the forefront of technological progress in several fields. France is responsible for the monitoring and technical management of the European space program Ariane, the operational launcher of several dozen communications and observation satellites.