You passed a French degree, and now what? You passed a French degree, and now what? The value of French education abroad
Acknowledged for the quality of its higher education, France welcomes about 280,000 foreign students every year. Despite the international competition, a stay in a French-speaking environment is an asset to enter labour market.
Institutions that attract international students...
With about 280,000 international students hosted in en 2014, France is the 3rd most attractive country, according to the UNESCO. The reasons for this attractiveness: the quality of education and the average low cost of studies.
Foreign students can rely on the excellent network of higher education institutions that spreads throughout the country.
First in Paris: according to a yearly survey by British research office Quacquarelli Symonds, the French capital is ranked first for the 3rd consecutive year as "best student city in the world". Over a third of international students in France choose to settle in this area.
After Paris, foreign students also like Lyon, Lille, Toulouse, Montpellier, Grenoble or even Rennes.
... and degrees that attract recruiters
There are many industries in which French degrees are appreciated. Finance, for instance, but also engineering science and IT. French engineering schools are well known for the completeness of their training. It includes the acquisition of strong theoretical bases, but also the development of know-how in regards with the industrial sector. As a result, 15.5% of engineers with a French degree found a job abroad, according to the 2014 study of the Association of French Engineers and Scientists (IESF).
The luxury goods, hotel and gastronomy industries are other business sectors in which French degrees are valued, as they are know-how typically regarded as French.
An evolving system
French higher education draws its reputation from the academic approach designed during the Age of enlightenment. Its education puts the emphasis on control of abstraction and vertical transmission of knowledge. Higher education institutions are gradually adapting to this tradition in the context of globalized competition. They develop professional curriculums and stress their focus on the international aspect.
This is the main stake of the LMD reform implemented since the mid-2000. French degrees now benefit from a harmonization system implemented in 45 countries (States in the European Economic Area plus Turkey and Russia). Beyond this scope, equivalences of diplomas may be granted in NARIC-ENIC centres or in the French Embassy of the host country.
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