Tuition fees at the university will not increase at the start of the school year, Minister Frédérique Vidal announced at the National Assembly on Tuesday. "The decree provides that the registration fees are indexed to inflation but for the next school year, we will depart from this rule and ensure that there is no increase in registration fees for students, "assured Frédérique Vidal during a hearing before the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education at the National Assembly. The Minister of Higher Education and Research stressed that the government "is working more broadly to make other proposals to support this start of the school year".
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This indexing "would have corresponded to an increase of approximately 1.2% in registration fees", according to Bruno Studer, deputy for Bas-Rhin and chairman of the commission. "The majority is fully aware that the health crisis of Covid-19 reinforces the precariousness of the student public, which already counts 20% of young people living below the poverty line. This new increase in compulsory spending by students, while neither the APL , nor the scholarships, are not indexed on inflation, would have contributed to make these students more precarious ", he underlined in a press release.
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Reflections on the organization to put in place at the start of the school year
Monday, the student union Unef had denounced in a press release this increase, requesting its removal. "In the midst of a health and social crisis, the government has decided to increase the registration fees for all public higher education courses, thus applying its decree of April 19, 2019. This increase, totally out of step with the current situation in country, reinforce the selection at the entrance of our establishments ", he had written. This measure "is far from anecdotal since it only reinforces the already very precariousness of students and contributes to strengthening selection by money", he added.
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Asked also about the organization to put in place at the start of the new academic year, the minister said that she had "asked the establishments to start thinking about it, especially with regard to the crowded lecture halls". "Whether it is reverse pedagogy, small groups created, or all the solutions that have been invented (during confinement), I asked the establishments to think about their projections because we do not know what will be health conditions at the start of the school year, "said Frédérique Vidal.