Paris remains the most expensive French city for students with an average expenditure of 1,557 euros per month, according to the annual rankings published by the National Union of Students of France (UNEF) in anticipation of the start of the 2024-2025 academic year.
This ranking of the fifteen biggest university towns in France in 2023 takes into account higher education tuition fees, catering and accommodation, as well as the cost of transport and basic goods and services.
The study reveals that of the ten most expensive cities for students in 2023, nine are in the Île-de-France (Paris region), with an average monthly cost of 1,307 euros.
Lyon is identified as the second most expensive city, with a monthly cost of 1,256 euros for its students, followed by Marseille with an average cost of 1,159 euros per month.
At 1,076 euros per month, Clermont Ferrand tops the list of least expensive cities for students, followed by Nancy and Dijon with average monthly costs of 1,090 and 1,095 euros respectively.
For the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, UNEF expects an increase of 2.25%, which would result in an additional cost of 482.16 euros over the year, or more than 40 euros per month.
The student union estimates that the cost of student living is 27% higher for the September back-to-school period than in 2017, but some cities are less affected than others by this soaring cost of living.
