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Final registration
You arrived in France with a preliminary admission or a certificate
of preregistration in a French university. Your registration will
be completed only when you have carried out the administrative registration
with the registrar's office of the university or the school and,
in most cases, the educational registration with the teaching services
or laboratories.
These formalities proceed, according to the establishment and the
level of studies, either in July, or at the start of the academic
year (from September to October or November).
The administrative registration
: The administrative registration is the one that confers the student's
status ; it is conditioned with the payment of the university fees
and allows you to obtain an essential document : the student card.
At the university, you will withdraw a registration form with the
registrar's office which will set you a appointment to come and
deposit the duly filled file. This small pocket of registration
generally includes an index card of information, an index card of
codified registration, a form of preventive medicine, leaflets on
student mutual insurance companies… The day of the meeting,
please, do not forget your notification, your passport or your ID
card, your certificate of preliminary admission or preregistration.
You will also join the documentary evidences of your level of studies
(diplomas with the translation in French and\or the equivalence
granted in France), the birth certificate or the birth and marriage
(the certificate will be less than three months old). For the students
concerned by the procedure of preliminary admission (first request
for registration in first year of 1st cycle) : the marks obtained
in the test of skill at French language.
Do not forget the stamped envelopes, the required passport photos
and of course your chequebook as you will have to pay the tuition
fees. You will then be delivered a student card which will give
you access to all the services to which you entitled, especially
university canteens.
In the other types of establishment (Grandes Ecoles, specialized
schools…), the procedure is generally similar: please, inquire
to know about the procedure and the precise dates.
The residence permit for final registration
Lucky enough, the residence permit is not generally
demanded by the registrar's office for the first registration.
But unfortunately, it is not always the case : indeed, certain
establishment does not deliver definitive registration and student
card, without seeing the residence permit. In that case, it
will be necessary for you at first to go to the prefecture to
make the steps concerning your stay.
One problem : the prefecture may not content itself with a certificate
of preliminary admission or preregistration, and demand the
student card. A real vicious circle from which you will eventually
go out if you are tenacious (with the help of the person responsible
for the service of the foreign students in the university -
when there is one - of a student union or an association if
things get more complicated).
Be reassured. This scenario is rather rare but the students,
who experienced it wasted their time and often their first illusions
in Voltaire's homeland.
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Focus on the student card :
The student card is delivered after the administrative registration
and payment the tuition fees. From then on, it is the document which
proves your student's status.
The student card is the best ticket for numerous discounts : cinemas,
museums, theaters, airline companies, train (SNCF) sports hall,
parties and spectacles, different shops… But it is above all
your " passport " to higher education, notably the day
of the exam. It contains a whole series of details not always easy
to decode. To help you, let us have a look at them closely.
Registration fees
In the universities, the basic fees is set every year by
the Minister of Education and depend on the diploma : in 2001/2002,
they ranked from 133,24 euros to more than 610 euros - 133
euros for the classical subjects of 1st of 2nd cycles or for
a DEA ; between 150 and 300 euros for a DESS, for MIAGE, MST,
MSG or magistère, for the doctorate or the HDR (capacitation
to do the research) around 365 euros for engineer training…
The biggest part of this sum (school fees) is devoted to the
operating budget of the university, then is transferred partially
in the UFR, institutes or schools. The rest is shared out
in the following way :
at least 2,3 euros for the medical supervision of the
preventive medicine ;
about 6,10 euros for the Fund for the improvement of the student
life (FAVE), intended to finance actions proposed by the representatives
for the students ;
from 15 to 22 euros for the access to the service of documentation
(university library).
If you prepare several diplomas in the same establishment,
you pay only once the full rate fees, the other fees are at
a slightly reduced rate. Certain additional fees decided locally
by the Board of directors of every university, can be added
to the basic fees. They should be justified and are optional
: it is normally for real and identified services such as
the subscription to the university sports association (about
7,50-15 euros), mail expenses or data processing, the fees
for laboratory, cultural fees, the royalty photocopies or
duplicated lecture notes… These expenses can vary according
to the subject.
In that case, you should know that certain universities were
condemned for charging fees considered as unfair and illegal
(in particular additional rights concerning the educational
cost). Please, be careful.
If you are affiliated to the French Social Security student
regime, your student card makes appear the payment of the
annual and fixed subscription (170,74 euros in 2001/2002),
and if need be the subscription in a student additional mutual
insurance company. For the other types of establishment, please,
inquire with the service of schooling.
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The other parts of the student card :
the access card to the university library ;
school certificates to prove your registration in a higher establishment.
They may be useful for some procedures (request for an allowance
to the Family benefits Office e.g.).
Exemption from school fees
Grant holders from higher education and the
French government are exempted from school fees and contributions
to social security.
According to a decree of 1984 (decree N° 84-13 January 15th
84), other students can be exempted from the payment of school
fees if they have specific financial problems. They must ask
for exemption to the Head of the University, before or after
registration and payment of fees. The Head will consider the
situation of the student. The step will be all the more successful
if it is supported by the social workers of the university,
by the Crous of the preventive medicine.
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Teaching registration : Once
you have carried out the administrative registration and have obtained
in your quite new student card, you will have to generally proceed
to the teaching registration. This step does not exist in certain
establishments (for example preparatory classes for entrance to
Grandes Ecoles, where the subjects and the timetables are set in
advance).
The teaching registration takes mostly place, at the start of the
academic year (in September/October), but certain establishments
stage it at the previous end of year in July. At the university,
it takes place within the University department (UFR) corresponding
to the discipline chosen.
The training and research's department
(UFR)
The UFR (these initials replaced the former denomination "
faculty " is one subdivision of the university which gathers
various departments and research laboratories of the same subject
(for example the UFR Sciences includes the departments of mathematics,
the chemistry, physics…). A university includes, as a general
rule, several UFR, institutes (IUP…) and internal schools (engineering
schools…).
The UFR decision-making center of the UFR council, composed of students
whom you will have elected, of teaching and non-teaching staff.
At its head is the dean of faculty elected by the council.
THE UFR, corresponding to the subject you chose, is doubtless the
university administrative department with which you will have most
of your relations, because it is responsible for all that concerns
the most concrete aspects of your studies (schedules, meeting with
Profs., withdrawals diplomas…). It is also in charge of transfers
of files towards the other universities or of re-orientations in
the course of cycle.
A sound piece of advice : every UFR has an administrative secretary's
office which will be your most direct interlocutor. You don't need
to have a problem to meet them or of the secretary of UFR. Try to
maintain, friendly relations from the beginning with this person.
Some day you will need him or her…
The teaching registration conditions the validity of your academic
year. It is determining insofar as it sets your timetable, your
registration in the subjects (lectures, practical works, the choice
of hours for the compulsory courses) (which determine the mention
of the diploma) and subjects for the optional courses. In the case
of Deug, the compulsory subjects are the same for all the diplomas
of the same mention ; on the other hand, the optional subjects can
vary according to universities.
The date of notification for the teaching registration depends on
administrative registration order or alphabetical order. Insofar
as the first ones to register have most choice in schedules, in
subjects and in professors (the best or considered such are very
quickly booked up) let us wish that the system of drawing lots is
spread over and not just, practised by certain universities.
You will have to produce certain number of documents (student card,
photos, envelopes stamped at your address, sometimes birth certificate
or birth and marriage certificate…). Follow the hour of notification
and bring the documents required, administrative departments are
usually fond of procedures.
During the of teaching registration procedure, you will also indicate
:
your subjects of eligibility, that is those for which you will follow
practical works, and will be subjected to written examinations ;
your subjects of admission, that is those for which you will be
subjected to oral exams (with the necessity to obtain the average
required) in the subjects of eligibility.
A sound piece of advice : from the beginning of the academic year
and the teaching registration, please, inquire about the modalities
of evaluation and exams with the teaching secretary's office of
your UFR or the university Service of information and orientation
(SUIO). Try to know if choices are proposed to you (continuous assessment,
final control…) and, in that case, try to obtain advice from
teachers, former students, guidance counselors, to make the good
decisions. See also farther in this chapter the paragraph "
Modes of control and exams ".
You will finally have to known your educational regime. In most
cases, it will be the " normal " regime. But there are
also special educational regimes for the wage-earners, handicapped
students, the high-level sportsmen… To apply to these regimes,
it is necessary to meet certain number of specific conditions.
Flexible timetable and courses
the dispensatory mode makes it possible to prepare Deug in three
years, applying to two. It targets the wage-earning students
but it is sometimes proposed by the university, at the beginning
of the year or after a quarter, to students of weak level, to
avoid them a failure. It sometimes exists in the form of an
evening class ;
the long dispensatory mode makes it possible to prepare for
a Deug in four years worth two (" part-time Deug ").
It targets essentially the wage-earning students as well as
those said " prevented " (patients, handicapped persons…)
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the specific mode of distance learning (or telelearning) : the
regime of audiovisual center. If you have health problems, if
you are handicapped, if you practise high-level sports or, more
simply, if you work in the course of the year and that you think
you are not able to manage at once your studies at the normal
rhythm, say it to the administration, you will benefit if need
be from an adaptation of your schedule.
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During the teaching registration, manage to arrange a coherent
timetable is not always easy : it is necessary to try to gather
the courses, compulsory or optional as well as the practical works
without overlapping and to gather the maximum of courses in a minimum
of days. Just perfect to give you a headache ! There will be certainly
more or less long " holes " in your days, that will permit
you to go to the university library, and why not, from time to time,
to the movies or the museum. The general knowledge is also important
for your studies.
The paragraphs which follow are intended to help you in your choice
in the teaching registration and to allow you better to understand
the university system, its terminology, its organization, its modes
of control… Please, Follow the guide !
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Final registration
