March Issue
By Peyton Dashiell
February
In Nov. 2022, word broke through French news outlets and social media that Sciences Po Paris tuition fees will increase by 7.5 percent for the 2023-2024 academic year. The initial increase, which passed unanimously among the Sciences Po Paris board minus two abstentions, was planned at 9.5 percent. However, it was slightly reduced after representatives from the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France (UNEF) and NOVA met with administration on Nov. 23, 2022.
Citing inflation and the European energy crisis as factors influencing the hike, tuition at Sciences Po for undergraduate non-scholarship holders will rise to 14,437 euros, while graduate students can expect to pay over 20,000 euros. As recently as 2020-2021, tuition stood at 10,760 euros — this measure represents more than a 30 percent increase in just three years.
Furthermore, this tuition increase will have particularly severe consequences for scholarship holders. Neither CROUS nor supplementary scholarships from Sciences Po will rise according to this new calculation. CROUS scholarships will increase by a mere four percent, while Sciences Po scholarships like Emile Boutmy will increase by seven percent.
These plans directly contradict remarks made by Sciences Po President Mathias Vicherat, a former UNEF representative himself, as recently as March 2022, when he pledged that “les frais d’inscription n’augmenteront pas” (enrollment fees will not rise) during his presidential term. But despite this promise, the tuition hike is not unprecedented. Measures taken following Vicherat’s ascendance to director of Sciences Po have been characterized by financial prudence. To bankroll the costly Paris campus move in January 2022, he announced that he planned to prioritize economic consolidation and profitable “continuing education” initiatives.
Additionally, the Sciences Po administration has remained silent in the face of the increase. While major French media outlets like Le Monde rushed to publicize the “vertigineuse” (steep) increase, Sciences Po administration has failed to release a single statement or email to the undergraduate student body, forcing student unions like UNEF and NOVA to liaise between administration and students and share information about the tuition rise via Instagram and Facebook.
In a series of Instagram posts, UNEF president Anissa Chehbib labeled the increase as “une hausse colossale, qui nous révolte,” (a colossal increase that revolts us). Furthermore, UNEF noted that ongoing increases in inflation and cost of living have exacerbated the financial situations of low-income Sciences Pistes and their families. NOVA’s social media advocacy echoed these complaints — in addition to negotiating down to the 7.5 percent increase rate, they pledged to ensure that Sciences Po administration will improve social assistance measures and eliminate “useless expenditure.”
Additionally, Solidaire joined UNEF and NOVA in condemning the increase, telling President Vicherat, a former Danone executive, that “a university should not be run like Danone” and denouncing the “unacceptable process of liberalization and privatization of education and research.” They also noted their exclusion from the meeting between President Vicherat and representatives from UNEF and NOVA.
This announcement also comes at a time of particular administrative upheaval on the Menton campus — with the majority of the already weary administrative staff out on leave, the myriad of registration issues that naturally accompany the beginning of a new semester have largely gone unfixed as mid-February approaches. Many students still miss language and atelier classes, and repeated emails and visits to the office rarely grant resolution.
While a student-led letter prompted a visit from the Paris administration and several measures to help administrative staff regroup and resolve issues, significant problems have persisted, making this steep rise in tuition even harder to fathom. When students cannot take required courses, promises of campus facilities go undelivered and administration is unresponsive through it all, does rising tuition truly reflect the student experience?