Cost of student living

 

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Chapter 1

The start of the 2018 academic year will cost 1.31 per cent more than last year, according to the Unef student union's annual student cost of living survey.

 

Rents too high, public transport expensive: the cost of living continues to rise for students a few weeks before the start of the academic year, worries Unef (Union nationale des étudiants de France) in a report published Monday. The start of the 2018 academic year will cost 1.31% more than last year, which was already on the rise (+2.09%), according to the student union's annual survey. For more than half of the students (56%), this increase exceeds the level of inflation, estimated in June at 2% over one year, the report, unveiled by RTL, stresses.

 

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After having received all the aid (grants, APL, etc.), the average monthly balance for a student is 837.72 euros, up 129.59 euros, calculated the Unef. In order to improve the living conditions of students, the union demands in particular the revaluation of 20% of the grants and APL - frozen in 2018 - and the widening of the aid system, whereas 73.5% of students are excluded from it according to the Unef.

 

The return of the framework of the rents demanded by the Unef

The two main factors behind the increase are the rise in rent prices - 54% of the student budget - and public transport. Eight university cities combine the two phenomena: Lille, Nantes, Toulouse, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Nancy, Angers and Rouen. Paris remains the city with the most prohibitively expensive student rents (830 euros per month on average for the 2018/2019 academic year) but the increase is more contained in the capital (+0.73%) than in other cities such as Nanterre (+4.90%), Le Havre (+3.07%), Lyon (+2.85%) or Poitiers (+2.50%).

 

Unef demands the return of rent control in Lille, which was cancelled in October 2017 by the administrative court, and its extension to all university cities. In Paris, where the rent control was also cancelled by the court, the municipality has already announced its wish to reinstate it within the framework of the so-called Elan housing law, supported by the government and which plans to leave the possibility for communities to experiment with the measure for five years.

 

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On the transport side, ten conurbations (including Île-de-France) charge fares that are higher than the national average of 269.49 euros. In Tours, Rennes, Lyon, Dijon and Lille, the season ticket is close to or exceeds 300 euros and the AMF is calling for "more substantial" student half-fare schemes to be introduced in these cities. Nearly half of the students (46%) are forced to work in parallel with their studies, which is the first cause of failure at university, says the AMF.

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