More students heading abroad

FRANCE has overtaken Germany for having the highest number of students heading abroad for university, but thousands of grants to help cover the costs are going unclaimed.

The number of French people spending a year in an overseas university grew by 9% in the academic year that is just ending, up from 26,000 to more than 28,000.

The figures from the Agence Europe Education Formation France, published in Le Figaro this morning, are based on the number of students enrolled on the Erasmus programme, where EU students can spend time in a foreign university as part of their course.

The total figure will be higher, because students who study abroad independently outside of the Erasmus programme are not included.

The Higher Education Ministry says it has made more grants available to students since 2008 to encourage young people to study abroad.

However 4,000 of the 27,000 grants made available each year are not given out because of a lack of applications.

Find out more about French grants for overseas study

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