Bachelor's Degree in France for African Students

What a bachelor’s degree in France looks like

The French bachelor’s is called the Licence. It runs 3 years — six semesters — and carries 180 ECTS, the same credit weight as a bachelor’s anywhere in the European Higher Education Area. There is one intake a year, in September, so a missed deadline costs you a full year.

A licence from a public university is a national diploma: the state awards it, not the university, so the qualification reads the same whether you studied in Lille or Marseille. It converts through ECTS and it is the normal entry ticket to a European master’s. France recognises 3,500 institutions.

Language is the honest part. Almost every public university teaches the licence in French, and English-taught bachelor’s programmes are counted in ones and twos, not dozens. Sciences Po lists 3, Université PSL 2, Université Paris Cité 1. Sorbonne University, University of Bordeaux, University of Lille, Université Paris-Saclay and University of Strasbourg list none at bachelor’s level.

Can you enter with WASSCE, KCSE, NSC or the Bac?

Yes, and without a bridging year. The ministry’s DAP notice asks for a secondary diploma that gives direct access to higher education in the country that issued it, or evidence that you meet that country’s own university-entry conditions. WASSCE, KCSE, NSC, ZIMSEC, ECZ, UACE, Thanaweya Amma and the Moroccan Baccalauréat qualify on that test, so a school leaver enters the first year of a licence directly. France runs no state pre-university year with a final examination — no equivalent of the German Studienkolleg.

The binding condition is French, not your certificate. The TCF tout public with the written-expression module is compulsory for the DAP, and the result has to be in by mid-February. Three exemptions exist: nationals of states where French is the only official language, candidates schooled mainly in French, and holders of a French-language diploma at B2 or above.

No French body issues a binding equivalence: ENIC-NARIC France issues an attestation de comparabilité, which Campus France says does not constitute an equivalence in itself. Each university decides. In practice the universities in our dataset treat WASSCE as bac-equivalent — Aix-Marseille Université, Sorbonne University, Université Grenoble Alpes, University of Lille and Université Paris-Saclay all accept it for direct first-year entry through the DAP, with Paris-Saclay asking for five or more credits including English and Maths. None publishes a minimum grade.

If your French is below B2, the route is a language year, not a foundation year. A DUEF at a university FLE centre runs 9 months and costs €2,800–3,860 per year, and a B2 diploma also exempts you from the TCF. See France foundation and language year routes and studying in France from Nigeria.

How much a bachelor’s costs in France

Public universities bill by the year, not the semester. The national non-EU rate for a licence is €178–2,902 per year: the low end is what French and EU students pay, the high end the full droits différenciés. Which end you land on is the university’s decision, not yours. Université Paris Cité exonerates every licence entrant to €178 per year, as does Université Paris-Saclay; Aix-Marseille Université, Lyon 1 and Grenoble Alpes charge the full €2,902 per year. A May 2026 decree ended blanket institutional waivers and limits exoneration to individually assessed hardship cases, so budget for the full rate in 2027/28.

Private schools are a separate market at €14,900–23,900 per year. Every enrolled student also pays the CVEC contribution of €105 per year, once, at enrolment.

Living costs are the larger bill. Campus France estimates €600–800 per month nationally, but Paris runs €1,235–1,700 per month and Grenoble, the cheapest large campus, €600–1,000 per month. Plan the first year as one tuition payment, the CVEC and twelve months of living costs, before flights, visa fees and the arrival tax. City figures are on our France cost of study page.

English requirements for a bachelor’s

The visa sets no language condition: France-Visas and Campus France list no French or English certificate among the documents for the VLS-TS étudiant. The university decides.

Where a bachelor’s is taught in English, the working floor in our dataset is IELTS 6.5. ESSEC Business School asks IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 90 for its Global BBA. No national floor is set by law: each programme publishes its own, and several public universities in our table publish a band for master’s entry only, because they run no English-taught licence.

If you are applying to a French-taught licence through the DAP, your IELTS score is irrelevant: the test that decides the file is the TCF in French. Test-free routes, and the programmes that accept a school certificate in English instead of a test, are on studying in France without IELTS.

Universities to look at for a bachelor’s

Sciences Po is the largest English-taught bachelor’s option in Paris, with 3 programmes and a flat non-EEA fee of €14,900 per year (#354 (QS 2027)). It recruits outside the DAP, on its own calendar.

Université PSL (#34 (QS 2027)) is the highest-ranked in our French dataset, also in Paris, with 2 English-taught bachelor’s and fees that vary more than anywhere else, at €178–20,000 per year depending on the member school.

Université Paris Cité is the cheapest serious option in the capital: it exonerates every licence entrant to €178 per year and lists 1 English-taught bachelor’s (#300 (QS 2026)).

Université Grenoble Alpes, in Grenoble, pairs the widest English-taught provision of the public universities here with the lowest city costs, at €2,902 per year and rent of €250–500 per month (#387 (QS 2027)).

Aix-Marseille Université in Marseille (#443 (QS 2027)) teaches some bachelor’s content in English at €2,902 per year, and Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in Lyon lists 1 at the same €2,902 per year. Both take WASSCE for direct first-year entry through the DAP.

The business schools are the expensive end. ESSEC Business School in Cergy charges €15,900 per year for the Global BBA; HEC Paris in Jouy-en-Josas charges €23,000–26,500 per year for its joint BASc, the same fee for every nationality. Neither goes through the DAP, and that is the one legitimate way round the December deadline. Profiles: French universities.

How to apply for a bachelor’s in France

1. Check your certificate against the DAP rule and shortlist programmes. One DAP file covers three universities at most, so rank them before you start.
2. Book the TCF tout public with the written-expression module unless you are exempt. The result must reach the file by mid-February.
3. Open your application when the procedure opens. Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco use Études en France; Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe file the DAP dossier blanc with the cooperation and cultural service of the French embassy.
4. Legalise your documents. South African and Moroccan certificates take an apostille; the other seven origins need full consular legalisation, which takes weeks per document.
5. Write the projet d’études: which programme, why France, how it follows from your results. A weak or borrowed study plan is a named refusal ground.
6. Submit before the closing date — 15 December 2026 (DAP file for September 2027 entry; procedure opens 1 October 2026). Late files are not read.
7. Attend the Campus France interview where your country requires one. National decisions land by 30 April 2027 and your acceptance is due by 31 May 2027.
8. Apply for the visa. You need €877.50 per month in resources and the fee is €50–99; see France student visa requirements.

After the bachelor’s: master’s or work?

A licence is the entry ticket to a master’s rather than to the job market. The Master (diplome national de master) takes 2 years and 120 ECTS, and your three-year licence is the standard entry qualification — no four-year or honours degree is required.

The job-search permit is the honest part. The APS is recorded at 22 months after a bachelor’s and costs €150, but the rule behind the number matters more: service-public lists a master, a mastère spécialisé, an MSc and a licence professionnelle as qualifying diplomas, and a general licence does not clear the bar. If the plan is to stay and work in France, the master’s is part of the plan, not an afterthought — see master’s degrees in France.