Speaking as a foreign student in France, I’d say Campus France services make our lives easier
Yassine El Kovac, a Moroccan student on a three-year scholarship, is nearing the end of his course at the ENST telecommunications school in Brittany. He is highly appreciative of the three-year record of support from Campus France, and was even able to arrange a one-year postponement of his final-year grant instalments, to do a gap year.
How did you first make contact with Campus France ?
After two years of preparatory classes in Morocco I took the admission exams for several French engineering schools and was accepted at ENST Brest. The school asked me to get in touch with Campus France on grant payment.
Have you been in contact with them on other matters ?
Last year I asked them if I could postpone my final year grant payments to do a gap year. I’d be on a remunerated internship, so it would make sense to keep the grant for my final year in school, especially since this would be in Paris, under an agreement between ENST and Paris VII Denis Diderot University.
How do things work with Campus France ?
Each scholarship-holder is assigned a correspondent at Campus France. This makes matters easier because it means you don’t have to explain your situation to a different person each time round. My grant postponement request was accepted, and I’m very grateful to Campus France for their help on that.
What is your general impression of Campus France services ?
Speaking as a foreign student in France, I’d say Campus France services make our lives easier. They find accommodation for us. We can get in touch with them on administrative matters. And they put on a wide range of very interesting cultural activities. I’ve just one suggestion on that: since they dropped the paper version of their cultural activities programme, the only way to find out what’s on is by visiting their website, and this is easy to overlook. So it might be a good idea to email the programme to us.
