France: Prospective Visitors
From Foreignliving
Hi Everyone, This is the initial version of the studying in France guide. I hope to add some points soon:
Strong Points
- Education is free in all the education programs in French (except business and/or programs in English)
- French Universities are ranked among the best Universities in the World (around 10-15 unis in the top 200). Some Universities such as University of Toulouse and Sorbonne University dating back around 700 years.
- The real French strength are the specialized French engineering schools called "Grande Ecoles" about which thevranking institutes/people don't know much. I am quite sure that if they are entered in the ranking fairly, they would be among the the best in the world
- French business schools dominate Europe. The best business school in Europe is also french (HEC)...yes higher than LSE check out website of (HEC - Paris)for ranking and other details.
- France is a Social Welfare State. The government pays about 40% of your house rent and this is valid for all the studentsvand people with not too high salaries.
- The health is for a large part free and state owned... so no payment for medicine/hospitalizations etc
- Its the most visited country in the world and its a really beautiful country
- Good chances of getting an academic scholarship/Industry scholarship for Phd and eventually a job if you are in the domains of electrical engineering, electronics or telecommunications
- You can travel around in Europe quite cheaply and without any visa problem (around 15 schengen countries i.e. no visa required).... this is something that people going to Uk/USA would probably miss out
Weak Points
- Very difficult to survive without knowing French
- If you are coming here just for a Masters degree than please be ware that the French education system is totally different from that followed around in the world and the coursework of masters is considered as merely a revision of concepts (i.e. usually 5 four hour classes in two weeks and its done). So theres no "learning" time or aspect. Actually you get about 3 months to complete 8 courses, so you can well imagine. The research part of masters is however much better. So better come here for a phd/job
- The English language based Masters programs are quite costly usually although some have found cheap ones also
- Getting good jobs can prove to be difficult particularly if you are not in the electrical engineering, electronics or telecommunications domain
- In any case, France remains to date an interesting destination for studies.
Please check out the edufrance website http://www.edufrance.fr/en/ for more details.
I will be updating this page soon.
Regards Usman.
