French higher education is at risk of “collapse” if the government does not improve funding, university leaders have warned, with the country’s budget set to heap additional costs on institutions.

From next year, universities will be required to cover the employer’s share of a new supplementary health and welfare insurance scheme, known as the PSC, and make increased contributions to a special pension fund for employees, the CAS.

Under the current draft budget, which the government is still battling to get passed through parliament, institutions will not receive extra funding to cover these contributions, which the umbrella body France Universities said will amount to €180 million (£160 million) in additional expenses next year.

If the current financial situation is not addressed, the university group , universities will face almost €230 million in additional expenses in 2026, on top of €360 million unfunded additional costs in 2025.

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Anne Fraïsse, president of Paul Valéry University, Montpellier 3, said the government’s approach to funding universities “can be reversed – and must be, if we are to avoid the collapse of higher education in France”.

“It is urgent that the state stops implementing costly measures that it does not fund, and that it stops transferring the financial burden to universities,” Fraïsse said. “Since budgetary constraints require choices, education must become a national priority, and university budgets must no longer be treated merely as opportunities for cost-cutting”.

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The introduction of mandatory payroll costs without additional government funding “destabilises budgets and forces universities to draw on their reserves to cover operating costs”, she continued.

“Universities are being asked to increase their own resources, reduce expenses by closing programmes or limiting student numbers, and especially reduce payroll, mainly by cutting positions.”

Etienne Bordes, a lecturer at Paris-East Créteil University and a higher education researcher, said university student numbers have risen by more than 200,000 over the past 10 years, an increase that “has not been accompanied by a significant budgetary effort” and thus has left institutions unable “to fulfil their missions properly”.

France is already experiencing the impacts of underfunding, Bordes said, with the number of doctoral students falling as academic careers appear less attractive, while private higher education institutions “have grown rapidly in recent years and now account for a quarter of all students”.

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“For the ministry, this has helped to alleviate demographic pressure and limit the number of people without higher education, but the quality of these highly lucrative groups not clearly regulated often leaves much to be desired.”

Fraïsse told ����Vlog that “research is suffering because understaffing often forces faculty members to double their teaching load and manage large numbers of contract workers. This means they have less time for research, especially for European projects.”

“Teaching is also affected, with fewer places available, fewer teaching hours for students, and even threats to close entire campuses or degree programmes”, while “the impact on student life is severe, with growing precarity and the suspension of a long-awaited reform of the scholarship system”.

Fraïsse described a fraught relationship between the higher education sector and the government, “generally marked by denial or, at best, systematic minimisation of the difficulties faced by universities” with “responsibility for the current situation [shifted] onto the leadership of universities”.

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Recent comments by higher education minister Philippe Baptiste, who suggested that universities were exaggerating their financial difficulties by saying, “It’s not like we’re in a Zola novel”, caused “outrage” in the sector, she said.

“Political instability means that policymakers lack long-term vision, perspective and a solid understanding of the issues,” she continued. “It seems that the ministry’s current objective is simply to get us through one more financial year and postpone the problem.”

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emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com