EXCLUSIVE. The purchasing power of students plummeted during Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term – Le Journal du dimanche

They waited in the queues for food distributions and at the doors of humanitarian associations. Parade to claim help after losing their odd jobs. And struggling to follow their online courses in sometimes dilapidated housing … With the health crisis, students have seen their precariousness worsen, as evidenced by the 17th UNEF study on the cost of living in higher education , which the JDD unveils exclusively. In 2021, while the purchasing power of most French people stabilizes or even increases, that of young people plunges. For them, the cost of living soared 2.5% over one year – while inflation reached 1.2% in July – or 247.38 euros more to pay to meet their needs. Their monthly budget has thus increased by 20.61 euros.

“The situation is critical”, alarms Mélanie Luce, president of the second student union. To draw up this gloomy financial picture, the UNEF has peeled their compulsory expenses (registration fees, tuition, student and campus life contribution), incompressible (catering, insurance, telephone, Internet, health, housing, transport, etc.) and compressible (food, clothing, leisure).

The non-scholars are the most in difficulty

As young people do not have identical consumption patterns or social profiles, four typologies have been established in order to establish a portrait that conforms to reality, depending on whether they receive a grant or not, and whether they live alone or at home. their parents. The difference between the aid received (excluding family support) and the costs necessary on a daily basis thus makes it possible to define a vital remainder, a real indicator of what they must have in their pocket to make ends meet.

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The most in difficulty? Non-scholarship holders and those who receive a small amount (104.20 euros per month) living in the provinces far from their relatives (see table opposite). “This precariousness is structural and has continued to erode equality of access to higher education for years,” laments Mélanie Luce.

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These are 39.26 euros abolished per year and per student by the government while their cost of living has increased by 10.51%

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If the fall in their standard of living appears to be lower this year than in 2020 (see curve opposite), it is above all thanks to mutual aid mechanisms put in place by certain local authorities. The regulation of rents in Paris and Lille for example thus contributes to a stagnation of rents in the private park, with an increase of only 0.03% * on average in 2021.

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Despite everything, housing weighs heavily, nearly 551 euros per month, with strong disparities between the territories. Between 2017 and 2021, this first budget item for young people soared by 7.37%. More accessible, university residences only accommodate 6.25% of them (against 7% four years earlier), due to a lack of available places. Another beneficial measure: specific fares in public transport, which have helped to reduce these costs by 6.30% for scholarship students and 0.40% for others.

Up with Holland, down with Macron

Still, being a student today means counting every euro and cutting corners on the non-essential. To illustrate their dropout, UNEF compared the situation of students under the different five-year terms since 2007, based on the amounts invested in direct aid and voted each year in the finance law. Under Nicolas Sarkozy, this envelope reached a total of 305,839,062 euros over five years; 546,540,867 euros with François Hollande; 79,143,179 euros with Emmanuel Macron (knowing that his mandate is not over, it is not final).

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There is a lack of ambition on the part of the government

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Reduced per year and per student, this represents 45 euros more under Sarkozy, in particular thanks to the establishment of a tenth month of scholarship (against nine previously). And 92.27 euros additional under Holland after the revaluation of the amount of scholarships, the widening of their criteria for obtaining and the creation of a student rental deposit. When he arrived at the Élysée in 2017, Emmanuel Macron canceled the first job search aid (200 euros per month for higher education graduates, 300 euros for apprentices), reduced the APL by 5 euros per month and cut 41 , 2 million in the program dedicated to direct aid while the number of students increased by 100,000 between 2017 and 2019.

“These are 39.26 euros abolished per year and per student by the government while their cost of living has increased by 10.51% under the five-year term,” calculates the president of the UNEF. If emergency measures have been adopted to help them face the crisis – 150 euros for scholarship holders benefiting from APL, increase in aid paid by the regional centers of university and school works (Crous) -, the union regrets the absence of a sustainable strategy to fight against their pauperization.

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“In December, we were told a second aid of 150 euros which never arrived, annoys Mélanie Luce. It’s like with the reform of the stock exchanges, promised three times but never started, or the construction of 60,000 housing units. academics when only 20,000 came out of the ground. There is a lack of ambition on the part of the government. ” This financial insecurity pushes more than two out of ten students to abandon their studies before graduating.

* And not a decrease of 0.47%, as we wrote in a first version of this article.