Masters in France for Indian Students: 2026-27 Fees, Routes & APS Route After

  • Last Updated on: September 23, 2026 by
  • Swapna Kanchikacherla
Masters in France for Indian Students
Masters in France for Indian Students

For the 2026-2027 academic year, a master’s at a French public university costs an Indian student EUR 3,950 a year, against EUR 58,900 at HEC Paris (Campus France). Between them sit emlyon at EUR 22,600 a year and SKEMA at EUR 37,000 for two years. Those four set the current published range, and they aren’t comparable as printed. France is almost free only for EU nationals. You’ll pay the non-EU rate. Five of the nine fees below are quoted per year and four cover the whole programme. The table, with the EU column you cannot use, comes first.

Written by
Swapna Kanchikacherla
Head of European Desk
Specialises in Germany and France student admissions and visa documentation, with a focus on Campus France, APS, blocked-account and proof-of-funds files.
9 Years, 1100 Visas
Reviewed by
Sridhar Kongara
Managing Director
Mr. Kongara Sridhar, Director of AOEC India, has over 12 years of experience in overseas education consulting, admissions, and student visa guidance.
Over 12 years Experience

Key Takeaways

  • A non-EU public-university master’s costs INR 4.36 lakh a year (EUR 3,950) for 2026-27, plus the yearly CVEC student-life charge of INR 11,598 (EUR 105).
  • Cost-led route: apply through Etudes en France; budget EUR 600 to 800 a month (approx. INR 66,277 to INR 88,370).
  • Cannot self-fund? Apply for France Excellence Charpak yourself: EUR 860 a month (approx. INR 94,997), no minimum CGPA, and the public fee is cancelled.
  • Private fees run EUR 15,500 (INR 17.12 lakh) at Ecole Polytechnique to EUR 58,900 (INR 65.06 lakh) at HEC Paris.
  • Proof of funds is EUR 877.50 a month, about EUR 10,530 over a year (approx. INR 11.63 lakh), indexed to the minimum wage.
  • Indian graduates with a master’s-level qualification get one year to work, renewable once.
Table of Contents
Three Master’s Routes in France: Public University, Grande Ecole and Business School Scroll here ↓ Entry Requirements for an Indian Three-Year Bachelor’s, With or Without IELTS Scroll here ↓ Master’s in France Fees and Your First-Year Bill for 2026-27 Scroll here ↓ Scholarships That Cancel the EUR 3,950 Tuition Fee Scroll here ↓ Applying Through Etudes en France: the Platform India Must Use Scroll here ↓ Working During Your Master’s and the APS Route After It Scroll here ↓ Frequently Asked Questions Scroll here ↓ Your Next Step on a France Master’s Application Scroll here ↓

Three Master’s Routes in France: Public University, Grande Ecole and Business School

Masters in France for Indian students split three ways: public universities, engineering and science Grandes Ecoles, and private business schools, each mapped in our study in France guide. They differ on price, on entry, and on what a recruiter reads.

If you’re an engineer, your shortlist is a public university master’s or a Grande Ecole MSc. For management or consulting it’s the Master in Management (MiM).

InstitutionProgrammeDurationNon-EU feeEU feeBasisINR (base fee)
HEC ParisMaster in Management2 yearsEUR 58,900 plus a EUR 2,000 international supplementEUR 58,900Whole programmeINR 65.06 lakh
EDHEC Business SchoolMiM, Business Management trackNot publishedEUR 51,250, indicative before scholarshipsEUR 44,700Whole programmeINR 56.61 lakh
SKEMA Business SchoolGrande Ecole / Master in Management2 yearsEUR 37,000 plus EUR 500 service fee a yearNot differentiated (one published rate)Whole programmeINR 40.87 lakh
ESCP Business SchoolMaster in Management2 years, up to 3 with placementsEUR 28,800EUR 25,100Per yearINR 31.81 lakh
TBS EducationMSc Entrepreneurship2 years, or 1 year on the short trackEUR 25,650, or EUR 19,500 for the one-year trackNot differentiated (one published rate)Whole programmeINR 28.33 lakh, or INR 21.54 lakh on the one-year track
emlyon business schoolMaster in Management (Programme Grande Ecole)2 to 4 yearsEUR 22,600Not differentiated (one published rate)Per yearINR 24.96 lakh
Sciences PoGraduate level, all master’s programmesNot publishedEUR 20,640Income-scaled, EUR 0 to EUR 20,640Per yearINR 22.80 lakh
Ecole PolytechniqueMaster of Science and Technology, 8 of 10 specializations (MAQI EUR 19,200)Not publishedEUR 15,500Not differentiated (one published rate)Per yearINR 17.12 lakh
Any French public universityDiplome national de master2 years (4 semesters)EUR 3,950EUR 255Per yearINR 4.36 lakh

Read the Basis column before the fee column. Four rows price the whole programme. Of the five priced per year, double the public route and ESCP, pick your own multiplier for emlyon’s 2 to 4 years, and note that Sciences Po and Ecole Polytechnique publish no length.

Public universities: the national master’s degree

A public master’s is a diplome national de master, awarded at an EPSCP (France’s legal category for a public university). Universite PSL, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Sorbonne University and Universite Paris-Saclay all charge it at the same rate, because the ministry sets the fee, not the school.

Grandes Ecoles: engineering, science and Sciences Po

Ecole Polytechnique charges EUR 15,500 a year across eight of the ten Master of Science and Technology specializations (MAQI is EUR 19,200), and its reduced rates go to internal students, not to a nationality. For 2026-2027 Sciences Po charges a flat EUR 20,640 a year at graduate level where the parents are tax resident outside the European Economic Area. Its income-scaled band covers EEA residents only, so no means test applies.

Business schools: the Master in Management

In the QS Masters in Management 2027, published in September 2026, HEC Paris ranks 1st and ESSEC 3rd. ESSEC publishes no fee, and circulating figures differ by roughly EUR 40,000, so treat any ESSEC figure you see as unverified. Accreditation and placement sit in our French business school comparison.

Entry Requirements for an Indian Three-Year Bachelor’s, With or Without IELTS

The three-year Indian bachelor’s isn’t the wall applicants are warned about. No French authority sets a national entry point or a minimum grade for it: each institution defines its own criteria, and only the host institution can accept or refuse you. So there’s no 55% or 60% cut-off, and one rejection says nothing about the next.

Three things decide entry, and none is a number you can look up:

  • The institution’s own criteria, never a national threshold.
  • 180 ECTS behind you and 120 ahead. Under the LMD system (Licence-Master-Doctorat), a licence runs six semesters and 180 ECTS credits (the European points a course carries), and a master adds 120 more. An Indian three-year degree maps onto the licence, so M1, the first master’s year, is the usual entry point, and M2 the second.
  • The language the course is taught in, set course by course.

emlyon accepts a 3- or 4-year Bachelor’s degree for its Master in Management. Each stage’s documents are listed in our France entry requirements guide.

France teaches more than 1,600 programmes partly or wholly in English (Campus France), and no national rule requires IELTS. The requirement belongs to the programme, not the country. Start from the IELTS-free routes into France.

Apply to five or six programmes across different universities, not five at one. In our 2026 intake files, the students who cleared M1 entry on a three-year degree had the cleanest subject match, not the best marks.

Master’s in France Fees and Your First-Year Bill for 2026-27

For the 2026-2027 academic year, a non-EU master's at a French public university costs EUR 3,950 a year (approx. INR 4.36 lakh), against EUR 255 for an EU student (Campus France, Tuition fees in France). Tuition is therefore the small line in an Indian student's budget. Living costs are the large one.

ItemAmount for 2026-27When you pay
Etudes en France feeINR 20,000 (was INR 18,500)Once, in India
Public university tuitionEUR 3,950 (approx. INR 4.36 lakh)Every year
CVEC, the student life and campus contributionEUR 105 (approx. INR 11,598)Yearly, pre-enrolment
Validating the VLS-TS, the long-stay visa that becomes your residence permitEUR 150 (approx. INR 16,569)Once, after you land
Rent, CROUS room or private studioCROUS: Paris EUR 450 (INR 49,708), elsewhere EUR 350 (INR 38,662). Private studio: Paris from EUR 800 (INR 88,370), elsewhere EUR 400 (INR 44,185)Monthly
Living costs, all in, on CROUS rentEUR 600 to 800 (approx. INR 66,277 to INR 88,370)Monthly

The EUR 600 to 800 band assumes a subsidised CROUS room (CROUS is France’s public student housing network). A private studio pushes you above it: in Paris the rent alone starts at EUR 800. City-by-city figures sit in our cost of studying in France breakdown.

Differentiated tuition and the 30% exemption cap

Masters in France for Indian students now carry droits differencies (differentiated tuition, the non-EU rate), and that is the biggest change this cycle. A 2026 decree lets a public university exempt at most 30% of enrolled foreign students in 2026-2027 and 25% in 2027-2028, falling to 20% in the long term (Service-Public). Budget the full fee and treat an exemption as a refund you never counted on.

Proof of funds: 47% of the minimum wage

From 1 August 2026, the minimum proof of financial resources for a French student visa is EUR 877.50 a month (Campus France India). Over twelve months that is roughly EUR 10,530, by multiplication rather than a published total. Nor is the monthly figure fixed: a 2026 decree sets it at 47% of the gross monthly minimum wage in force on the day you file (Decret n. 2026-526). The old EUR 615 floor was set on 31 December 2002 and never revised, so any page still printing it is quoting 2002. Parents: this sits in the account on top of tuition, not inside it. Evidence that holds up is listed in our proof of funds guide.

Housing benefit: three cases only

Since 1 July 2026, a non-EU student on a study permit gets housing benefit in three cases only: paid employment, an apprenticeship or professionalisation contract, or a bourse sur criteres sociaux (Service-Public). That last is the French need-based CROUS grant, which Charpak and Eiffel are not. Self-funded and not working, you get none of it.

Scholarships That Cancel the EUR 3,950 Tuition Fee

For the 2026 Charpak Master cycle, the France Excellence Charpak Master award pays EUR 860 a month (approx. INR 94,997) and sets no minimum CGPA or percentage (Campus France India). Real money with no grade cut-off makes it the first award an Indian applicant should target.

AwardMonthly allowanceFunded durationTotal valueNot covered
France Excellence CharpakEUR 860 (approx. INR 94,997)1 to 2 years, full-timeEUR 10,320 (INR 11.40 lakh) for one year, EUR 20,640 (INR 22.80 lakh) for two: the monthly award across the funded periodTravel from India and other stay costs
France Excellence Eiffel (master’s)EUR 1,200 (approx. INR 1.33 lakh)12 months from M2, 24 from M1, 36 for engineeringEUR 14,400, 28,800 or 43,200 (INR 15.91, 31.81 or 47.72 lakh) across each funded periodProgramme tuition; public registration fees are waived separately by BGF status
BGF fee waiver, with either awardNone; a waiver, not cashEvery year you hold the awardEUR 3,950 a year cancelled (INR 4.36 lakh)Private business-school tuition

What BGF status waives

Charpak holders hold bourse du gouvernement francais status (BGF, French government scholarship holder), and that status triggers a full, automatic tuition-fee waiver for 2026-2027. Under the Code de l’Education, article R719-49, it covers registration for a national diploma or engineering title at a public institution under the higher-education ministry, and nothing else. So the award cancels the public university fee by itself; a private business school still invoices you in full.

Eiffel: more money, no tuition, one fixed window

Eiffel pays more: EUR 1,200 a month at master’s level from January 2026, and no tuition at all (Eiffel regulations, September 2026). Its hardest rule is a date: the stay must begin between 1 September and 30 November of the award year, with no deferral. Charpak, Eiffel and Erasmus Mundus scholars are exempt from the Etudes en France and visa fees, though all still pay the VFS fee (Campus France India).

Where the 2026 cycles stand

For the 2026 Eiffel campaign, applications had to reach Campus France by 8 January 2026 (Campus France). Line up a nomination the autumn before. For the 2026 Charpak Master cycle, shortlisted candidates were interviewed online between 13 and 30 April 2026, and the 2026 results are already final. Neither page publishes next year’s dates.

Charpak you apply for yourself; for Eiffel your institution nominates you. Of the Charpak files we supported, the weak part of almost every first draft was the study project, not the marks. Smaller schemes sit in our France scholarships guide.

Applying Through Etudes en France: the Platform India Must Use

You find the master’s you want, click through from the course page, and land on Mon Master, France’s national master’s platform. Close the tab: from India that is the wrong door, and it can cost the visa.

Residents of an Etudes en France country, India included, cannot use Mon Master (Mon Master, ministry FAQ). You must complete the Etudes en France procedure, Campus France’s online admission and visa pipeline, before you can obtain a student visa (Campus France). Entering a different country of residence to dodge the block risks the visa itself.

  1. Build the Etudes en France dossier; it runs through to the visa.
  2. Never declare another country of residence to reach Mon Master.
  3. Pay the Etudes en France fee in India, unless you hold one of the exempt scholarships.
  4. After you land, finish the OFII process (Office francais de l’immigration et de l’integration, the agency that validates your residence status) within three months of arrival.

From our counselling desk: in our September 2025 intake we counselled about 80 Campus France applicants. The single biggest visa-refusal driver was proof of funds, not the amount. It was how the money had been accumulated and whether parental-income evidence backed it up. A lump sum landing a week before the interview reads as borrowed.

Campus France publishes no opening date for the Etudes en France cycle, so work backwards instead. Open the dossier before your final marksheets arrive. The form is never the bottleneck; the bank trail behind it is. Our Campus France walkthrough covers each stage.

Working During Your Master’s and the APS Route After It

France caps student work by the year, not by the week, and that cap is matched to the funds you must show. A part-time job covers living costs; it does not let you show less.

The 964-hour work cap

Under French law, foreign students may work 964 hours a year, which is 60% of full-time hours (Campus France). There’s no weekly limit, and degree internships don’t count toward the 964. Since 1 June 2026 the SMIC (salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance, France’s statutory minimum wage) has stood at EUR 12.31 gross an hour (Service-Public). Those hours are mapped in our part-time jobs guide.

After the master’s: the APS and its two conditions

The APS (autorisation provisoire de sejour, a temporary residence permit for graduates) is open only to students from countries with a bilateral professional-migration agreement, and India is on that list (Campus France). Under the France-India Migration and Mobility Partnership, eligible Indian graduates holding a qualification at least equivalent to a master get one year, renewable once, so up to 24 months (Decret n. 2021-1321). Two conditions ride on it:

  • The job must be related to your training, an unrelated job won’t keep the permit.
  • It must pay at least one and a half times the monthly minimum wage. The treaty fixes a multiple, not a euro figure, so the floor rises whenever the wage does.

At the end of that period, graduates already in a job, or holding an offer that meets them, may stay on to work, and the employment-situation test cannot be raised. That test asks whether a French or EU worker could fill the role. The treaty is written around you going home, so treat the 24 months as time to work, not a way to settle.

The alumni visa and the market you graduate into

The five-year alumni visa isn’t a work permit: it allows stays of up to 90 days at a time, with a 90-day gap between stays (Campus France India). Both are compared in our post-study work visa guide.

In the 2026 survey of the 2025 graduating class, according to the Conference des Grandes Ecoles, first salaries averaged EUR 39,679 gross a year excluding bonuses. Net employment within six months ran at 76%, down from 80.2% a year earlier (CGE). That covers bac+5 graduates of CGE member schools, and the net rate excludes those who kept studying. Employment is falling, and the APS pay floor has to be cleared in it.

Get in Touch

Frequently Asked Questions

Budget two layers. Public-university tuition is fixed at EUR 3,950 a year (approx. INR 4.36 lakh), plus a yearly CVEC of EUR 105 (approx. INR 11,598). The private layer moves, from EUR 15,500 a year at Ecole Polytechnique to EUR 58,900 at HEC Paris.

No national rule requires IELTS, because each French institution sets its own admission criteria. Read the catalogue wording closely: those 1,600-plus courses are taught partly or wholly in English, so check which modules are delivered in French before you accept an offer.

There is none. No French authority sets a national entry point or a minimum grade for an Indian bachelor’s degree: each institution decides, and only the host institution can accept or refuse you. So build the application around subject fit and your study project, not a percentage.

Not free, and the word to watch is waiver. A French government scholarship such as Charpak or Eiffel automatically cancels the registration fee for a national diploma at a public institution. At a private business school it does nothing, so you pay the full invoice.

Up to 24 months: one year, renewable once, for Indian graduates whose qualification is at least master’s-level. Two conditions decide it. The job must relate to your training, and it must pay at least one and a half times the monthly minimum wage.

Your Next Step on a France Master’s Application

Public tuition is small and fixed; living costs and the 964-hour cap are not. Build the funds trail months ahead, apply for Charpak alongside your admission, and read the Basis column first.

Ardent Overseas has guided Indian students through overseas admissions for more than 12 years, from offices in Hyderabad and Tirupati. Our European desk handles Campus France dossiers, APS files and proof-of-funds documentation end to end, for every autumn and spring intake.

Sources

Official sources first, then rankings and third-party research.

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