Students, academics to protest chronic HE underfunding

French higher education teachers’, researchers’ and students’ unions are hoping for a solid turnout on Tuesday 10 March in nationwide protests against chronic underfunding and job cuts in public universities and research agencies.

Twenty unions have invited members to join a rally in front of the Higher Education and Research Ministry in Paris or to hold meetings on campus while a budget meeting of the government’s consultative Higher Education and Research National Council (Conseil National de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, CNESER) is in progress.

The question is what the CNESER will recommend and what the government will do, or not do, about it. The opinions of the 100-strong body “are always well-founded”, Emmanuel de Lescure, general secretary of the union SNESUP-FSU, told University World News.

“Their advice on budgets is rarely followed by governments, whether right or left-leaning, but it can have some influence on parliament,” he said.

State budget

The French government finally adopted the state budget for 2026 on 2 February, after a laborious and sometimes stormy parliamentary debate failed to achieve a consensus. The upshot is that spending is €8 billion (US$9.2 billion) short of the 75 public universities’ needs, the 20 unions said in a joint statement on 19 February.

And another €8 billion is lacking for public spending on research to reach the longstanding European Union (EU) goal of 1% of gross domestic product (GDP), the statement added. The other 2% should come from the private sector to bring the total to 3%.

The French 10-year government research plan for 2021 to 2030, which earmarked an extra €25 billion from a 2020 baseline, was aimed at making good the government’s part of the GDP bargain.

Billed initially as unprecedented since the end of the Second World War, the plan has “once again not been respected”, a spokesperson for France Universités, the association of French rectors, told University World News in an email.

Although “more or less stable” over the years, spending on higher education and research fell from 6.83% of the total French state budget in 2011 to 5.33% in 2026, de Lescure noted.

“The extra €350 million slated for this year will not help, since increased social contributions will come to €330 million, and there will be inflation on top of that,” he added.

The cost of €1 meals for students in university canteens, adopted at the last minute and to take effect in May, is a concern both financially and logistically in view of limited capacity for extra demand.

Higher Education, Research and Space Minister Philippe Baptiste said on France Info radio and television on 13 February the cost would amount to some €80 million for a full year, or €50 million for the remainder of this year.

Fee increase proposal

Universities have long been encouraged to find alternative sources of cash. A controversial proposal to increase tuition fees for French and European students has been on the table since 1986.

In theory, non-European international students already pay more than the basic fees of €178 a year for a bachelor degree course, €254 for a masters, and €397 for a doctorate. But universities can refuse to apply the higher rate, and until now most have done so.

During his 13 February interview, Baptiste ruled out higher French student fees for the next academic year. But he said the “door is not closed” for their foreign counterparts and could be variable according to the disciplines involved. “There are some programmes where we absolutely need international talents.”

The France Universités spokesperson said increasing fees is a political decision but that “France and Europe need the best world talents in order to affirm their scientific, technological, industrial, military and economic sovereignty.”

The growing student population has been a big part of the problem. Between 2007 and 2025, public university enrolments increased by 19% but should increase more slowly in the next few years.

“Ten extra universities should [already] have been built, and 30,000 staff should have been recruited, including 15,000 teachers and teacher-researchers,” the unions said in their statement.

Instead, 900 teacher-researcher jobs had been cut by 2025, and the total number of tenured and contract teachers had fallen by 4%, the statement added.

Expressed another way, the ratio of tenured teaching staff dropped from 5.05 for every 100 students in 2012 to 4.40 in 2022, while student enrolments rose by 26,500 students between the 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 academic years, the France Universités spokesperson added.

Deficit university budgets

The fortunes of France’s 75 public universities have steadily dwindled since they were given management autonomy in 2007. All 75 have adopted deficit budgets for this year, 15 more than in 2025.

Thirty-three ended the year in the red in 2024, compared to 27 in 2023, 20 in 2022 and seven in 2014. The result is that some universities have had to drop plans to renovate premises or limit enrolments in certain programmes, the spokesperson said.

In January, the higher education and research ministry launched consultations about university funding that is bringing together rectors, teacher and student unions, and administrators.

The conclusions are expected by the beginning of May. But de Lescure doesn't see what good the exercise will do. “This year's budget has been adopted, and the debate will start all over again in the autumn for next year’s,” he said.

France Universités is more upbeat. The consultations should produce a "common assessment and analysis with the government on the state of our finances," the spokesperson said.

Since French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s priorities include investment in universities and research, “we hope a positive dynamic will be triggered”.

The government has little room for manoeuvre, however. French state finances are in a dire state, and defence has taken centre stage as geopolitical developments become increasingly explosive.

Looking ahead to the possibility that the far-right party National Rally might win the French presidential and parliamentary elections next year, de Lescure is pessimistic about prospects for higher education and research funding.

“I don’t think it would be a priority, particularly if the example of the United States under President Trump is anything to go by,” he noted.

By the time of publication, the Higher Education, Research and Space Ministry had not responded to a request for comment by University World News.