MFL year abroad in France

[AfterLeavingMrMacKenzie]

All being well, DD will be going to study in France this September for the 3rd year of her degree.

The university has put on a couple of information sessions for the students and given them a list of institutions with which they have exchange programmes.

They've said that with regards to funding (Turing) they don't know how much will be available but it won't be much and they don't know when they'll be allocating it.

I'd love to chat with other parents whose DC are doing a year in France or did one in the past.

DD doesn't have an EU passport.

If it's a student visa then it's £100 to register with Campus France, £45ish for an appointment to hand in the forms/photos/passport/fingerprints at a TLS office and £50 for the actual visa. And then another £50ish to register for a residence permit once they arrive in France.

My DS has a study abroad travel insurance policy - he should have registered for social security in France but hasn't. He also upgraded his GHIC to a student version.

My DS is currently on his year abroad at a university in France. He's a law and French student so studying law was the only option. Funding wise, his student loan is about £1500 more this year and he received Turing funding in December (although less than we hoped). He has uni accomodation which is only £225 a month and public transport in his city is only about £10 a month. We drove down with some of his stuff but he's still had to buy things like an air fryer, a kettle, a fan for his room (it was 35°c for the first few weeks he was there). His room is tiny but has ensuite and a kitchenette - two hotplates and a fridge. The cost of food has been the biggest shock and he was longing for vegetables when he got home for Christmas.
His French has definitely improved in the four months he's been there so far. He has to study law courses in French and also took a couple of language modules aimed at international students. He goes back at the weekend and can't wait.

His top tip would be to ensure that she bases herself in a big city

DD definitely wants a city. She'd love Paris but anecdotally I've been told accommodation is very difficult to find and expensive.

I'll post the list of possible institutions tomorrow.

My daughter’s University said they hadn’t ‘applied’ for Turing on her behalf and so she couldn’t have it, which was ridiculous. She’d been obliged to attend lectures about it and complete all the (very tedious) forms. Of course, they’d applied for every student going abroad as a compulsory part of their studies but were trying to fund students wanting to spend a (not compulsory) semester abroad.

That's interesting @Georgie8 DD's uni has said it will be means tested.

She's been so busy working and socialising since she's got home that I've not had the chance to interrogate discuss it with her properly. I'm going to sit down with her soon and stress how important getting some funding will be.

The year abroad is such a great experience .
My dd spent time in Spain and loved it

He has uni accomodation which is only £225 a month and public transport in his city is only about £10 a month.

That's encouraging and much cheaper than her UK accommodation and travel. How did he find his accommodation?

I'm starting to get quite excited for her now!

@Bigearringsbigsmile does he have an EU passport or could he work in those jobs with a UK one?

DD is at a Welsh Uni and the Welsh govt scheme promises to replicate Erasmus. So we'll see.

It seems quite wrong for unis to prioritise students for whom it's not a compulsory part of the course.

It's a shit show to be honest. One thing I did learn was not to believe a word said at open days - my child was distinctly told the year abroad was not assessed in any way, there'd be tons of support etc. the reality was zero support and several exams.

He ticked a box on the French uni application form requesting Crous accommodation. All four students from his UK uni are in the same accomodation although it wasn't guaranteed.

The year abroad is really exciting but don't underestimate the stress of French bureaucracy -visa and residence permit, rental file and guarantor process, bank account, mobile phone, travel.... Lots and lots of forms, photocopies, ID photos. And depending on the chosen uni, they might require a language proficiency certificate, the exams for which can only be sat on set dates. My DS isn't the most organised (waiting for an ADHD assessment) so perhaps it didn't have to be as complicated and last minute as he made it.

Fair enough. Though if she doesn't like children she's unlikely to find any kind of employment in France during her year abroad so the costs are going to have to be met elsewhere.

Had a look on her uni website which lists the universities they have partnership agreements with.

One of them (Montpellier) has a page for Erasmus students which also points out the things that UK students have to do differently so it appears they are considered Erasmus students to some extent.

They also only want B1 proficiency. Think I might suggest DD looks quite carefully at this uni - Montpellier looks like a beautiful city too!

Thinking the first step is to make sure she gets her Irish passport application underway - she's on the Foreign Births Register but needs a kicking to get the actual passport!

Just to counterbalance.....we were paying 1500 a month for a tiny shoebox of a flat in paris and before that 700 a month for a one bed flat in the sticks.

He has a UK passport.
His jobs were internships.

Montpellier is very dangerous

I have a child spending a year in Spain, (UK passport) and the bureaucracy/ time / money it took (all summer) to sort visas was almost insurmountable. Spain is harder than France, apparently (visa-wise).

Montpellier is very dangerous

In what way?

More dangerous than London or other UK cities.

What about Lille?

DD spent two weeks living with a family in Montpellier this summer and loved it, and she was only 17.

There's a list of ten supposedly dangerous cities in France here - many of which I've visited on holiday and haven't felt the least unsafe!

https://bestdiplomats.org/dangerous-cities-in-france/

Most of the unis on the possible exchange list are on here so she might as well go to Montpellier as anywhere else.

I think all French cities have dodgy corners as
is the case in all British cities
however I would not consider France to be more dangerous than the UK overall.
Nor would I consider Montpellier to be very dangerous.

DS is in one of those cities (which seems to be a list of the largest cities in France). He knows of a couple of neighbourhoods to avoid, much like any city anywhere in the world, but has only once felt a bit nervous in the central part of the city, at night, on his own, not long after he arrived.

Lille is a fantastic student city. The two provincial cities most favoured by Parisian students who don't stay in Paris are Bordeaux and Lille. Lille is IMO more interesting and of course close to both Paris and Brussels/Flanders.

French provincial cities are increasingly dangerous for many of the same reasons that UK cities are dangerous.

DD spent a year in Marseille pre University when she was 18. She was an au pair for seven months then rented a room in a flat share for 4 months doing agency child care work. Marseille was a lovely city to be in. We visited and thought it stunning - a whole range of different areas- though of course it has its rough areas and DD had to take care in the 2023 riots.

As to costs her rent was ~ €550 per month incl bills. She lived with 4 young French professionals - all very friendly. Despite Marseille's reputation she had no problems and travelled by bus, metro and bike. Friendly people and a more manageable size than Paris - stunning countryside and coast near by and of course Aix just 40 mins away.

Loves it so much she would now like to live there...Alliance Française had excellent courses - very discounted for au pairs but I expect if you're at the Uni they will have French courses as well.

Geneva University is an option for French language students.

Travel within the Canton is now free for the U25s.

If you get Uni accommodation, which you should, it’s circa CHF400 per month (2023/4 rates).

There are subsidised meals for students in the campus restaurants, restaurants that are open to the public and are of a very high standard. Swiss produce is superb.

The student will automatically be awarded a ‘scholarship’, known as SEMP, which was CHF3800 23/24. If your Uni means-tests Turing this would be a way to get a grant.

However, the student will need to set up a Swiss bank account (UNIGE will advise which banks to go to) and this can only be done after registering with the authorities. Consequently it’s unlikely the student will receive any funds before December.

UNIGE will advise UK students that some UK Universities say they cannot have SEMP and Turing. This isn’t true. The Turing system acknowledges that Turing will not cover all costs and allows for top ups -student loans, parental contribution, students’ savings, scholarships, bursaries etc. SEMP is a scholarship and my daughter successfully argued for, and received both, Turing and SEMP.

I tried to get clarity on the ‘official’ rules around Turing, even asking my MP, but the wording is all a bit nebulous. I googled virtually every UK University to see what they each said and the differences between the institutions were massive. Conclusion: badly drafted legislation.

As I said up thread, it’s an absolute sh*tshow that, ultimately, will mean only the wealthiest will be able to embark on a MFL degree confident in the knowledge that they’ll be able to afford the compulsory year abroad.

@Georgie8 "As I said up thread, it’s an absolute sh*tshow that, ultimately, will mean only the wealthiest will be able to embark on a MFL degree confident in the knowledge that they’ll be able to afford the compulsory year abroad."

I fear I share your pessimism. MFL at UK universities have been heading south for decades and this is like a final nail in the coffin.