After Unef, it is the turn of FAGE (Federation of General Student Associations) to warn of the increase in the cost of living for students. In a study released this Wednesday, the union estimates the cost of starting the 2023 course at an average of 3,024 euros for a 20-year-old university student who does not have a scholarship and no longer lives in the family home. An amount 4.68% higher than last year.
Rent, food, phone and internet subscriptions
Main culprits: day-to-day living expenses, estimated at 1,824.82 euros (+8.88%). These costs include rent (533.83 euros on average, +8.95%), university catering (66 euros), food (206.35 euros, +15.34%), miscellaneous material (138.02 euros, +3 87%), telephone and internet subscriptions (63.48 euros, +19.05%), leisure (46.31 euros, +3.69%) and transport (145.68 euros, +7.04%) .
Next, the “specific” readmission costs estimated at 1,199.67 euros (+2.10%) are added. Included in this category are university tuition fees (170 euros), the student and campus life fee (100 euros, +5.26%), complementary health insurance (334.25 euros, -4.28% ), home insurance (74.99 euros, -0.96%), deposit (533.83 euros, +8.95%) or didactic material (365.04 euros, +1.44%).
“Historical” increase in living expenses
In Ile-de-France, the total cost of student living is estimated at 3,596 euros, compared to 2,972 euros in the regions. FAGE especially regrets the “historical evolution” of living expenses “mainly due to the impact of the social and geopolitical crisis that translates into record inflation.”
“For most students, going back to university is a stage that will be insurmountable without the financial support of their family or a job parallel to their studies. This reality especially affects young people from modest families, thus compromising their access to qualifications and increasing the risk of abandonment, making France one of the most unequal countries in the OECD,” the union stresses.
It regrets that “at the same time, the aid dedicated to students in these items of expenditure does not allow them to face the increase in costs”, while “the personalized aid for housing (APL) was revalued in April 2023 only up to the 1.6% . A revaluation much lower than the increase of 8.95% observed in rents”. In addition, “scholarships based on social criteria have only increased in value by up to 37 euros per month,” says FAGE.
In this context, the union calls for a series of measures, including the opening of meals to 1 euro “for all”, the “freezing of rents and rental fees”, “the suppression of the indexation to the inflation of the Student Contribution and life on campus”, as well as a “complete review of the current system for awarding scholarships based on social criteria”, which would be “based no longer on a familiar operation but on national solidarity, in so that the State fills the gap between the students’ own resources and the poverty line”.
Source: BFM TV
