France wants 20,000 Indian students by 2025: Read this before you make up your mind

France plans to invite 20,000 Indian students in the country by the year 2025, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna has said while calling the plan “very ambitious”. “We want 20,000 Indian students in France by 2025. We're starting from something close to 5,000. It is very ambitious but, between India and France, the sky's the limit,” Colonna said.

Indians in France - prospects and scenario

Approximately 65,000 immigrants from India currently reside in France. However, because French is the language of instruction at French institutions and colleges, France is frequently not a chosen location for Indian students. Students must therefore demonstrate their grasp of the language. It is a requirement for international students to take French language exams.

For the aim of receiving admission to French colleges, standardised language examinations must be taken. At a testing facility in India or France, you can take the TCF (Test de connaissance du français) and the TEF (Test dâ Evaluation de français).

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It's noteworthy that students who want to enrol in an international degree program—a Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD program—might not be required to take a French language test. In these courses, English is frequently used as the teaching language. However, exams in the English language - such as the TOEFL or IELTS - may be necessary to enrol in a degree programme in English.

What people think

Some of the Twitter users think that the language barrier is a key issue. “The language barrier is only issue probably, UK & other nations where our communities are large have English as their primary language (sic),” said one of them. Another user seemed quite ambitious about France and wrote that France would be the UK for Indians in upcoming years.

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“Different countries drawing educated youth from India to serve in their countries. These countries should also invest for school education in India to groom these youths better from their childhood,” wrote one user.

Around 82 public universities in France provide the Licence (Under-Graduate), Masters (Post-Graduate) and Doctorate degrees (PhD). According to reports, 6,000 Indian students are currently attending higher education institutions in France.

Cost of studies in France

The typical annual tuition for bachelor's programmes is roughly ₹13,500 (€170), around ₹50,000 (€620) for engineering degrees and around ₹36,000 (€450) for medical degrees. The average annual fee for a Master's degree is around ₹21,000 (€260).