How to Get Into a University in France as an International Student

Fee figures: catalogue of 6 October 2026.

France has two front doors for first-year applicants, and which one you use depends on your citizenship and on where you live, not on what you want to study. Choosing the wrong door is the most common mistake international applicants make.

Door 1: Parcoursup

Parcoursup is the national platform for the first year of higher education. You use it if you are a citizen of the EU, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, or if you hold or are preparing a French baccalauréat, wherever you live. You enter your wishes in winter, complete and confirm them in spring, and receive answers from the start of summer.

Door 2: Études en France and the DAP

If you are not an EU citizen and you live abroad, you usually do not use Parcoursup for a first year at a university. You file a preliminary admission request, known as the DAP, through the Études en France platform run by Campus France in your country. This procedure opens in autumn and closes before the end of the calendar year, months before Parcoursup does. Missing it means waiting a full year.

Some programmes sit outside this rule, for example selective schools that recruit through their own competitive exams. Campus France in your country confirms which procedure covers your choice.

Selective and non-selective programmes

• Licence (the three-year university bachelor's degree) is non-selective in principle. Universities admit everyone while there are places, and rank applicants only when demand exceeds capacity.
• BUT, engineering and business schools, health tracks and preparatory classes are selective. They assess your file: grades, a motivation statement and sometimes an interview or exam.

France publishes no cutoff scores. What it publishes instead is the access rate: the share of applicants who received an offer the year before. A programme with an access rate of 90% takes nearly everyone; one at 10% turns away nine in ten. We show the access rate for every programme on our France pages.

Language

Almost all undergraduate teaching is in French, and applicants from outside the French-speaking world need a certificate, usually at B2 level: TCF, DELF or DALF. Some programmes ask for C1.

Step by step

1. Work out which door applies to you. Ask Campus France if you are unsure.
2. Take a French test early enough for the result to arrive before the deadline.
3. Shortlist programmes and compare their access rates.
4. File your application: wishes on Parcoursup, or the DAP on Études en France.
5. Accept an offer, then register at the institution and pay the fees.
6. If you are not an EU citizen, apply for a long-stay student visa.

What it costs

Public fees are set nationally and are among the lowest in Europe for EU students. See how much it costs to study in France.

Official sources

• Parcoursup: national admission platform
• Campus France: information and the Études en France procedure
• etudiant.gouv.fr: student life, housing and grants

Always check current information on the official website of the university before you apply.