France

Student Housing in France

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Student housing is a type of housing especially reserved for the category of the population which continues higher studies and includes mainly the residences or university cities and the private residences rented by their owners exclusively with students.

According to an investigation 2003 of the national Observatory of the Life Coed[1], more than 60 % of the students leave leave their parents' homes to continue studies. Those then bear the name "décohabitants". Among those, 15 % move towards collective residences (cities U, hearths, etc), 20 % in an apartment alone, 10 % in couple, 5 % in collocation.

* 1 History of student housing
* 2 residence halls
* 3 the market of private housing
* 4 Notes
* 5 See too

History of student housing

The first residence halls are built after the First World War, on the initiative ofthe general association of students(UNEF). A more constant effort was made in the years 1930, in particular by the Minister for the Popular Front, Jean Zay. They are more or less roomy according to places': 12 m2 with the residence of the Arches in Montpellier, 13 to 20 m2 in old Monbois in Nancy.

During the 1950s - 60s, because of the massification of the higher education and the arrival of new social classes more underprivileged than the general University population until that time, the lack of student social housing was more often made a priority. An ambitious construction schedule of residences of 10 m2 wais elaborate: the residence hall Jean Zay built in 1955 on the commune of Antony only counts with it 2,500 residences. In 1963, 75,000 students, about half ofenrolees, were placed by the CROUS (one by academy), which manage the residence halls since 1955.

These rooms of 10 m2, not very sound-proof, built within large complexes, with minimum comfort in the rooms, medical and kitchens on the floor, comprise few attractive collective spaces. The real park of the CROUS was degraded during decades, and an important plan of rehabilitation was launched at the end of the 90s, framed by a standard of social habitat studying obtained by Unef in 2003. The average monthly rent varies according to the degree of restoration of the room. After May 68, co-education, great claim coed, spread little by little in the cities U, although certain buildings are still reserved to the coeds.

In the 80s, it was the opposite extreme: the HLM build studios for the CROUS within residences known as "officially agreed" (with APL). Moreover, their rent can increase beyond the means of great number of the students. Their surfaces go from 16 to 35 m2, which allows in particular the hiring by a couple.

At the end of the 90s, out of 2.2 million students, only 7% are placed by the CROUS. The others must be placed with the market of private housing, unfavorable to low incomes and foreign students. Today, housing is the first budget heading of the students: between 120€, for those which live in residence hall, and from 200 to 500€ for those which must be addressed to the owners or to the agencies. Approximately 20% of the park of the CROUS are allotted to the foreign students.

Residence Halls

A candidate for a university room must fill a file with request for purse and housing (social file studying) for mid-April preceding his university re-entry. Attribution is done primarily according to social and family criteria (resources of the tax hearth, numbers brothers and sisters, distance of the place of studies in the parental residence). A file is then returned by the CROUS with the attribution of a housing, or not, in a residence. The student must then return a guarantee, and come to settle with the re-entry. The procedures of installation vary according to CROUS', but are the subject of a more or less organized course, for example with the CROUS of Montpellier by the means of a tutorat.

The CROUS, conscious of the difficulties encountered by the students, launched, with the assistance of the State, in March 2004, a plan of construction and rehabilitation of the residence halls. These rehabilitations can be made various manners: a simple "cleaning" which makes it possible to repaint the walls, a rehabilitation with identical, with a new furniture and a refrigerator, or supplements, with the installation of Internet and cabins trifonctions in the rooms.

In France, the university cities (usually called "cités U") are managed by the CNOUS. The residences suggested can go from 9m² to 32m².

The university cities (usually called "quoted U") differ from one city to another. Often, they are buildings laid out in a timbered park, comprising one or two wings and 3 on 4 floors. A university city comprises normally an administrative building, a cafetéria, cultural and sporting places. Each year, in November, of the residents are elected to sit at the council of residence, but this authority has a very weak weight. The residences are often animated by student associations sets of themes, clubs, or trade unions (p. e.g. the FERUF, connects quoted U ofUnef).

The internal organization of a university city is thus conceived: a director and an assistant, often civils servant of state, a agent-chief of the personnel, with employees for the reception, the cafeteria, the linen room, the workshop, the gardens and cleaning.

The Private Housing Market

Because of a limited number of places , a significant number of students does not manage to obtain housing from CROUS and must thus seek a housing by its own means.

However, they run up against many obstacles: too modest social park, inaccessible private housing, requirements of the owners (raised rents, guarantees of one, two even three months of rents) excluding in fact the students to the modest incomes and the students foreign.

A study was carried out by all the actors to answer several challenges:

• T he fall of the tension on the market
• The democratization of the higher education
• Student mobility

The principal answer resides in the construction of new student residences, but of the more particular answers exist:

• Use of seasonal residences (p. e.g. seaside resorts) throughout the year
• Sharing the houses of old people, with reduced rent for providing some of the services of everyday life
• Orchestrated support of the construction of private housing

Among the actors concerned are the CROUS, but also the CIF, for the assistances with studied housing (ALS, APL), the general council for the program "to renovate to rent" and the FSL, the Area for its initiatives (p. e.g. financing of the gate student housing, specific observatory and land Publicly-owned establishment in Languedoc-Roussillon, funds of joint and several guarantee in Burgundy), the communities of agglomeration for programs of urban restoration and town-plannings (LIKED), and actors private: for example estate agencies within the FNAIM, or in the network CENTURY21, which is dominating over this sector.

Also see

Articles connexes

* syndicat étudiant et lycéen
* CROUS
* CNOUS
* Résidence universitaire Jean Zay
* Cité internationale universitaire de Paris
* Conseil de résidence

Liens externes

* Site de l'Association pour le Développement Economique du Logement Etudiant (ADELE)
* Le guide du logement étudiant de CENTURY21
* Droits des étudiants en logement selon l'Unef
* Site du CNOUS
* Enquête de l'Observatoire de la vie étudiante