Master's Degree in France for African Students

What a master’s degree in France looks like

The degree is the Master (diplome national de master), a national diploma awarded under state authority rather than by the university alone. It runs 2 years and 120 ECTS after a licence, split into M1 and M2: you are admitted to the first year and continue into the second inside the same programme. Teaching starts in September, the national intake is Autumn (September/October), and there is no January entry. France recognises 3,500 higher education institutions.

English-taught master’s are common at this level, which is not true of bachelor’s. University of Strasbourg lists 98 of them, Université Paris-Saclay 60, University of Lille 40, University of Bordeaux 25 Sciences Po 21, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 60 and Université Paris Cité 19. A master’s is the level at which studying in France in English becomes an ordinary plan rather than an exception. HEC Paris teaches 13 master’s in English and ESSEC 10.

Is an African bachelor’s accepted?

Three-year bachelor's degrees are accepted. The French licence is itself three years / 180 ECTS, so a three-year African bachelor is the structural equivalent of the entry qualification and no four-year or honours degree is required; a four-year degree does not shorten the master. Admission to the first year of a master is on the dossier, within the capacite d'accueil set by each institution, and the institution alone rules on the foreign degree – there is no national equivalence table. A candidate without the normally required degree can still be admitted by validation des acquis professionnels (VAP 85, decret n. 85-906 of 23 August 1985), decided by a pedagogical commission on the university president's authority.

Université Paris Cité takes any recognised three- or four-year bachelor’s with no fixed CGPA published. HEC Paris accepts a three-year African bachelor’s in any field, with GMAT, GRE or TAGE MAGE and an interview.

There is no national minimum grade. Selection is on the dossier against each programme’s capacité d’accueil, and committees read African transcripts against a solid upper-second profile — second class upper, or mention assez bien — with selective universities and grandes écoles asking for mention bien. The recognition body is Centre ENIC-NARIC France (part of France Éducation international), whose attestation de comparabilité informs a university without binding it. South African and Moroccan documents need an apostille; the other seven origins need full consular legalisation.

How much a master’s costs in France

A public master’s is billed at €255–3,950 per year. The low end is the rate French and EU students pay; the high end is the droits différenciés rate non-EU students owe unless their university exonerates them. Université Paris Cité and Université Paris-Saclay exonerate entrants to €255 per year; University of Lille charges €254 per year. Université Grenoble Alpes and University of Bordeaux charge the full €3,950 per year. Every enrolled student also pays the CVEC of €105 per year, once a year rather than per semester. Fee-autonomous institutions are a separate market at €24,000–30,450 per year.

Living costs run €600–800 per month on Campus France’s estimate, and the city sets the real figure: Grenoble €600–1,000 per month against Paris €1,235–1,700 per month. The cheap version is an exonerated fee in a provincial city; the expensive version is the full rate in Paris, and that gap is wider than the tuition itself. A decree of 21 May 2026 restricted exonerations to individual financial-hardship cases, so evidence a waiver rather than assume one. Our cost of studying in France page has the breakdown.

English requirements for a master’s

France’s visa rules set no language condition; the institution decides. Our dataset records a working benchmark of IELTS 6.5 at master’s level, but no national floor is published and each programme sets its own. Université Grenoble Alpes asks IELTS 6, Université Paris-Saclay 6 and University of Bordeaux 6. Université Paris Cité asks 6.5, Sciences Po 7 and Aix-Marseille Université 7.

A medium-of-instruction letter is accepted at ESSEC, HEC Paris, Université PSL and Sciences Po, weighed case by case at Université Paris Cité and Université Grenoble Alpes, and refused at Aix-Marseille Université and Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1. Ask for that letter before you book a test. French-taught master’s set their own bar: Aix-Marseille asks for DELF or TCF at B2. Study in France without IELTS sets out which routes work where.

Universities to look at for a master’s

Start with the universities that exonerate non-EU master’s entrants, because the waiver is worth more than most scholarships. Université Paris-Saclay, in Paris (Saclay), charges €255 per year, ranks #76 (QS 2027) and teaches 60 master’s in English at IELTS 6. Université Paris Cité matches the fee at €255 per year with 19 English-taught master’s. University of Lille charges €254 per year and lists 40, in a city that costs €650–1,300 per month.

University of Strasbourg has the widest English-taught catalogue at 98 master’s, billed €255–3,950 per year depending on exoneration. Université Grenoble Alpes charges €3,950 per year but sits in the cheapest city in our dataset at €600–1,000 per month. University of Bordeaux charges the same with 25 English-taught master’s, and Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 the same again with 60, mostly in science and health.

Fee-autonomous institutions sit outside that framework. Université PSL, ranked #34 (QS 2027), spans €255–19,500 per year across its member schools and teaches 20 master’s in English. Sciences Po in Paris charges non-EEA students €20,640 per year for the standard two-year master’s. HEC Paris, at Jouy-en-Josas outside Paris, charges €29,450 per year and houses students at €560–780 per month. Aix-Marseille Université, in Marseille, charges €3,950 per year and asks IELTS 7, in a city costing €850–1,300 per month. Profiles are on our French universities page.

Scholarships for a master’s

The Eiffel Excellence Scholarship Programme pays a stipend of €1,200–2,100 per month plus return travel, makes 433 awards a year and caps applicants at 35. You cannot apply yourself: your French institution nominates you, admission comes first, and the scheme pays no tuition. Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda and Zambia are eligible; access is restricted for Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Morocco. The published cycle is the 2026 session — the 2027-session dates were not yet published as of 2026-09-10, so work backwards from your university’s internal nomination deadline.

Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters is open to all nine origin countries, covers tuition in full and pays €1,400 per month; you apply to the consortium, not to France. The largest single saving is still the fee exoneration, which turns €3,950 per year into €255 per year. See scholarships to study in France.

How to apply for a master’s in France

1. Legalise your documents. Apostille transcripts in South Africa and Morocco; elsewhere arrange full consular legalisation, which takes weeks per document.
2. Shortlist programmes. Études en France allows up to seven master’s choices in one file; mix exonerating universities with full-rate ones.
3. Open your file when the platform opens on 1 October 2026. The route is Etudes en France 'hors DAP' for residents of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco; Mon Master (monmaster.gouv.fr) for residents of Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The portal is pastel.diplomatie.gouv.fr.
4. Add your language proof and pay the local Campus France file fee.
5. Attend the Campus France academic interview. In Nigeria it opens on 1 November and closes on 1 March. Defend your projet d’études.
6. Submit before the close. HDAP procedure (Licence 2/3, Master) for 2027/28 entry: platform opens 1 October 2026, closes 8 January 2027, 23:59; institutional decisions by 30 April 2027; candidate acceptance by 31 May 2027
7. Apply for the visa. With an acceptance, file for the VLS-TS étudiant (long-stay visa valid as residence permit, student category): fee €50–99, biometrics in person, resources evidenced against €877.50 per month. Every document is on our France student visa requirements page.
8. Validate after you land. Validate the VLS-TS online within three months, pay the OFII stay tax of €100 and the CVEC, and register with the state health scheme.

After the master’s

A master’s is the qualification that opens the job-search permit. The Autorisation provisoire de séjour (APS) — recherche d'emploi ou création d'entreprise (job-seeker / business-creation residence permit) runs 12 months, costs €150 and is not renewable. A standard bachelor’s does not qualify, so the master’s is what converts study in France into a right to stay and work. During the degree you may work 964 hours/year (60% of the 1,607-hour annual legal working time) — an annual cap, not split into term-time/holiday allowances with no separate permit. The other exit is the doctorat, where tuition falls to €398 per year and a contrat doctoral pays €2,200 per month: see PhD study in France.