Unable to join their families, 40% of the students who have been living in Crous accommodation since September have been forced to stay there, even though nearby university restaurants and grocery stores have been closed.

As the new coronavirus continues to spread, the confinement period puts many poor students in great difficulty. Nearly 59,000 of them remained in the accommodation of the Regional Centers for University Works (Crous), where catering services were interrupted and solidarity grocery stores closed. It is almost 40% of the student population residing since September in these public establishments, which receive scholarship and international students in priority.

"There are cockroaches and bedbugs, these conditions are unbearable"

"The number of applications for social assistance has increased sharply in recent weeks," said Dominique Marchand, president of the National Center for University and School Works (Cnous), interviewed at the microphone of Europe 1. "Many international students and ultra-sailors stayed in our residences because they could not return to their country of origin or return to their families. " In the Crous, the teams usually in charge of catering continue to come to work to support the colleagues who take care of student accommodation.

At the origin of this situation of great precariousness: the loss of student jobs and the cancellation of internships, often considered by the government as non-essential jobs in the context of the state of health emergency.

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In the deserted campus of the scientific city in Villeneuve d'Ascq, near Lille, 2,000 students are, for example, partitioned into rooms of 9 square meters. Secours populaire delivers them daily essentials (pasta, rice, cereals). "It is not a life, there are cockroaches and bedbugs, these conditions are unbearable," laments Yannick, a Burundian biology student.

About 500,000 euros are expected to be released by university management. It has already released an emergency fund: 1,200 students have received aid of 200 euros.

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E-cards to pay in grocery stores

"We provide them with financial aid and payment e-cards, which allow them to pay directly in stores", explains the vice-president of the University of Lille Emmanuelle Jourdan-Chartier. Student associations, they ask for the freezing of rents in university residences but it is now up to the Ministry of Education to decide.

To try to respond to the crisis, the Minister of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, announced Tuesday to release 10 million euros for the funding of specific emergency aid allocated by the Crous. "It is quite significant when the academic year is already well advanced and compared to the annual envelope, which is already 48 million euros," approves Dominique Marchand.

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The amount released should primarily help students finance their health care. The student and campus life contribution (CVEC), distributed by the universities and the Crous, will be allocated above all to the satisfaction of food needs, via food purchase cards, and IT tools. In mid-March, the minister had already announced some measures, such as the cancellation of April rents for those who have left their student accommodation and the preservation of jobs in university residences.