Universities in France for African Students

Choosing a university in France

France has 3,500 recognised higher-education institutions, and they do not price the same way. Ordinary public universities sit inside a national fee framework: since 2019 non-EU students officially owe differentiated fees of €178–2,902 per year at bachelor’s level and €255–3,950 per year at master’s. Each university then decides how many non-EU entrants it exonerates down to the EU rate. Université Paris Cité and Université Paris-Saclay currently exonerate all of them; Aix-Marseille, Lyon 1, Grenoble Alpes and Bordeaux charge the full rate to most.

Outside that framework sit the grands établissements and grandes écoles — Sciences Po, the PSL member schools, HEC Paris, ESSEC — which set their own prices, from €14,900–23,900 per year at bachelor’s to €24,000–30,450 per year at master’s.

Two questions decide an African applicant’s shortlist: what language the programme is taught in, and whether that university exonerates non-EU fees. Rank comes third. Among public universities the city costs more than the fee does — Paris runs €1,235–1,700 per month against Grenoble’s €600–1,000 per month. Read the full cost of studying in France before you settle on Paris.

Top universities in France

Université PSL is the highest-ranked institution in the country at #34 (QS 2027), a Paris federation of schools covering sciences, engineering, economics, law, humanities and arts. Fees depend on which member school admits you, from €178–20,000 per year, and it runs 20 English-taught master’s.

Université Paris-Saclay (#76 (QS 2027)) is the strongest public option on price: it exonerates non-EU students to €178 per year and €255 per year, with 60 English master’s in engineering, computer science, data science and physics.

Sorbonne University (#73 (QS 2027)) covers medicine, engineering, computer science, physical and life sciences and humanities. Its exoneration quota is capped, so most non-EU entrants pay the top of €178–2,895 per year.

Université Paris Cité (#300 (QS 2026)) exonerates every non-EU entrant to €178 per year, and is the main Paris address for medicine, pharmacy, public health and psychology.

Sciences Po (#354 (QS 2027)) is public but prices independently: €14,900 per year flat for non-EEA students, for political science, international relations, public affairs, law and journalism. It lists 3 English-taught bachelor’s, one of the few places in France that does.

HEC Paris teaches its master’s entirely in English at €29,450 per year, in Jouy-en-Josas outside Paris, where campus rooms cost €560–780 per month. ESSEC Business School in Cergy charges €15,900 per year for its Global BBA and also admits through its Rabat campus.

Université Grenoble Alpes (#387 (QS 2027)) does engineering, physics, computer science and environmental science in the cheapest student city here. The University of Strasbourg (#456 (QS 2027)) lists 98 English-taught master’s, more than any other university on this page.

The University of Bordeaux (#485 (QS 2027)) covers medicine, law, engineering and viticulture. Aix-Marseille Université (#443 (QS 2027)) is the largest here at 80,000 students, in a city costing €850–1,300 per month. Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (#613 (QS 2027)) is medicine, pharmacy and life sciences. The University of Lille (#686 (QS 2027)) gives first-time non-EU master’s entrants an automatic waiver, so they pay €254 per year — the cheapest master’s route on this list.

English-taught programmes

The English offer in France is lopsided, and the bachelor’s end of it is close to empty. Sorbonne University lists 0 English-taught bachelor’s, and Paris-Saclay, Bordeaux, Lille and Strasbourg the same. Université Paris Cité lists 1, Lyon 1 1, PSL 2 — and PSL’s English bachelor’s are priced at the top of its €178–20,000 per year band, not the bottom.

Master’s level is the opposite. Strasbourg runs 98 English-taught master’s, Paris-Saclay and Lyon 1 60 each, Lille 40, Bordeaux 25, Sciences Po 21 and HEC Paris 13.

If you need an English-taught bachelor’s, the realistic route is Sciences Po, a grande école or a private school, and you pay private fees for it. No national English floor is set: each programme names its own test and threshold, typically IELTS 6.5 at bachelor’s and 6.5 at master’s. The visa itself sets no language condition.

For French-taught programmes the binding requirement is DELF or TCF at B2, and C1 at Lyon 1 for medicine. See studying in France without IELTS for which universities accept an English-medium letter instead of a test.

Entry requirements for African students

There is one national route. Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco must go through Campus France’s Études en France platform; Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are not on that mandatory list and apply to institutions directly. Inside Études en France, first-year Licence entry runs through the DAP procedure, and everything above it — Licence 2, Licence 3 and master’s — through HDAP. Recognition questions go to the Centre ENIC-NARIC France.

WASSCE and NECO are treated as Baccalauréat-equivalent for direct Licence 1 entry at Aix-Marseille, Lyon 1, Grenoble Alpes, Bordeaux, Lille, Paris-Saclay and Strasbourg, with no foundation year. Almost none publishes a minimum grade; the file is judged case by case, and French at B2 is normally the binding condition.

KCSE is the qualification with published cutoffs: Sorbonne University asks for an overall C+ or higher, Lyon 1 for a mean grade of C+ and B+ for medicine, maths and science, Grenoble Alpes and Paris-Saclay for C+ or better.

The South African NSC needs a Bachelor’s Pass, and Sorbonne and Grenoble apply their own subject-by-subject selection on top of it. The Moroccan Baccalauréat is recognised everywhere on this list, with higher marks demanded for medicine, engineering and architecture. For master’s entry, every university here wants a recognised three- or four-year African bachelor’s assessed as equivalent to a French Licence.

Medicine is the hardest case: no university here teaches it in English, and entry runs through the competitive PASS or L.AS first year. Country detail sits on the corridor pages, for example studying in France from Nigeria.

Tuition and scholarships

At a public university the published non-EU rate is €178–2,902 per year for a Licence and €255–3,950 per year for a master’s, plus the compulsory CVEC contribution of €105 per year, paid once at enrolment. Where you land inside those bands is decided by the university, not by you: Paris Cité and Paris-Saclay exonerate all non-EU entrants to the bottom, Lille does it automatically for first-time master’s entrants, Bordeaux and Strasbourg do it case by case on merit or need, and Aix-Marseille, Lyon 1 and Grenoble Alpes charge the top.

A May 2026 decree changed the arithmetic: the exemption quotas were widened, but eligibility was cut back to individual financial-hardship cases, ending blanket institutional exemptions. Expect the picture to tighten for 2027/28.

The grandes écoles are a different market, at €14,900–23,900 per year for a bachelor’s and €24,000–30,450 per year for a master’s. Medicine’s final clinical cycle is billed at €526 per year, the same for EU and non-EU students. Two national schemes are open to African applicants, Eiffel and Erasmus Mundus — see scholarships for study in France.

How to apply

1. Shortlist programmes by the summer of 2026 and ask each admissions office, in writing, whether non-EU entrants on that programme are exonerated to the EU rate.
2. Have certificates and transcripts legalised. South Africa and Morocco are Hague Apostille members, so an apostille is enough; Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe need full consular legalisation, which takes longer than students expect.
3. Sit DELF or TCF for French-taught programmes, or IELTS at 6.5 for English-taught ones. Book early: a December sitting reports back too late.
4. Open your Études en France account when the platform opens in October 2026. Applicants from Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe apply to each institution directly instead.
5. For first-year Licence entry, submit the DAP file: DAP procedure (Licence 1 / PASS-L.AS / Architecture) for 2027/28 entry: platform opens 1 October 2026, closes 15 December 2026, 18:00 (metropolitan France time).
6. For Licence 2, Licence 3 and master’s, submit the HDAP file: 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. Attend the Campus France interview on your study plan. A weak or incoherent projet d’études is one of the standard refusal reasons at the visa stage, and it starts here.
8. Accept your place, pay the CVEC and enrol, then apply for the VLS-TS étudiant showing €877.50 per month in resources. The fee is €50–99 and processing takes 2 to 7 weeks — see the France student visa requirements.