France cuts housing aid for non-EU students without scholarships, effective 1 July

France today stripped personalised housing benefit from non-European Union students who hold no state scholarship, as a decree published in the Journal officiel on Sunday 28 June came into force, closing a programme that had helped hundreds of thousands of international students pay their rent.

The measure, published by decree on 28 June 2026 and validated by the Conseil constitutionnel, ended housing benefit — the aide personnalisée au logement, or APL — for non-EU students without a means-tested scholarship, with effect from 1 July.

Students from outside the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland must now hold a higher-education scholarship awarded on social criteria — a bourse sur critères sociaux — or be engaged in an apprenticeship, a work-study contract, or paid employment to remain eligible.

Who is affected

Of roughly 320,000 non-EU students in France, only 2 to 3 percent hold an eligible scholarship, meaning more than 300,000 students risk losing the benefit. The National Assembly Finance Committee calculated that non-EU foreign students accounted for 12 percent of APL recipients, putting the number directly losing benefit at around 100,000.

APL typically amounts to between €100 and €250 per month — in many cases the largest single item of state support available to students who are not eligible for broader welfare payments.

Students from the EU, the EEA and Switzerland are not affected by the restriction. A non-EU student who holds a CROUS scholarship retains the right to APL regardless of nationality. Students in apprenticeships or carrying out professional activity alongside their studies — assessed at a minimum of one hour per week according to the Ministry of Housing — may also keep their benefit.

Tunisian students in the crossfire

In 2024/2025, 15,949 Tunisian students were pursuing studies in France, of whom 58 percent were women , according to Campus France Tunisia. France is by far the leading destination for Tunisian students studying abroad, who number more than 30,000 in total across all countries — roughly ten percent of Tunisia's entire student population, a rate around three times higher than the global average.

The vast majority of those students are non-EU nationals. Obtaining a means-tested CROUS scholarship is in practice near-impossible for most of them, because the grant requires the applicant to have been fiscally resident in France for at least two years.

Budget rationale and the wider squeeze

The reform was adopted as part of the 2026 Finance Act to reduce state expenditure. The government described it as a way to "better target public aid" in a tight budgetary context. The same legislation froze APL amounts at their 2025 level with no inflation adjustment; the two measures combined are officially estimated to save more than €100 million from 2026 onwards.

The cut does not stand alone. It takes effect as tuition fees for non-EU students are multiplied sixteenfold at the new academic year, and as the minimum financial resources required to study in France were raised the previous week.

Student unions warn of housing crisis at the rentrée

Student organisations reacted with alarm. Manon Moret, secrétaire générale of the UNEF student union, said the union was "very worried about the situation at the start of term, with students who will not be able to pay for housing."

Suzanne Nijdam, présidente of FAGE, said that increasing numbers of students were contacting the organisation because they did not know whether they would be able to continue their studies in France.

Moret also warned that the reform pushed foreign students to take paid work alongside their studies, "which is the leading cause of failure at university."

Following the publication of the implementing decree, student unions and rights organisations said they were examining possible legal challenges, including arguments based on constitutional guarantees of adequate means of existence.

Non-EU students without scholarships retain access to social housing managed by the CROUS university housing network , though places are heavily oversubscribed at most institutions.