Skyrocketing food spending and insufficient scholarships: Inflation is only aggravating the rising cost of living for students, according to a survey by the National Union of Students of France (UNEF), published Monday, August 14.
For the year 2023-2024, the costs inherent in studies increase by 6.47%, according to the organization. The same rate as announced a year earlier. This increase would represent a necessary additional budget of 594.76 euros for the year, or 49.56 euros more per month.
“Never, in nineteen years of UNEF investigation, has the evolution of the cost of student living reached such heights, underlines the union, which establishes this projection, based on an assessment of the situation financial support for several typical student profiles. We are reaching a stage of major student precariousness which sets in over time and whose evolution from one year to the next is constantly more important. »
14.3% increase in the cost of food
The student budget is weighed down in particular by increases in transport costs (5.91% for non-scholarship holders, 3.95% for scholarship holders), food (14.3%) and electricity (10 .1%).
The UNEF also questions the lack of action by the government to remedy the situation. The union, close to the left, considers the recent scholarship reform as “largely insufficient” to fight against student precariousness.
The government has planned to increase the amount of student scholarships to more than 500 million euros, allowing 35,000 new students to become scholarship holders from the start of the school year. The amount of scholarships, now varying from 145.40 to 633.50 euros per month, remains however “largely insufficient” to live, points out the UNEF.
