It is with one voice that the associations denounce the increase in the costs of the start of the school year for students in the health sector. In an unpublished joint report entitled “PASS and LAS: towards the privatization of higher education” and published this Wednesday, August 23, the five representative federations in maieutics (ANESF), medicine (ANEMF), dentistry (UNECD), pharmacy (ANEPF ) and physiotherapy (FNEK) take stock of the financial burden that increasingly weighs on students.
Since 2020, students have the option to join a PASS or LAS course and then continue in the health field. Common to these two paths, a “significant workload associated with the selection by numerus apertus” and that generates “significant pressure among students who want to put the odds on their side.” The main fear of the associations: that the use of private preparations accentuates the inequalities between students.
Costs more than 300 times higher than tutoring
In fact, students can use the “free” tutoring service, in collaboration with the teaching staff and with the support of the universities. But when it comes to external and independent organizations, the note is salty: the report indicates that in the region, for PASS, “the costs associated with a private preparation are equivalent to 31.4 times the costs of university tuition and 218.9 times tuition fees”. ”. For LAS students, the costs compared to Tutoring are 207.7 times higher.
In Île-de-France, the figures skyrocket: in PASS, the courses given by a private preparation are on average 633.8 times higher than those of Tutoring, while in LAS they are 320.4 times higher. Thus, when a PASS student spends 10.75 euros on tutoring, another in a private entity spends more than 6,800.
633
times more expensive than tutoring
Cost of private high schools
student federations
At the national level, the associations point out that “the cost of a private preparation organization is on average 345 times that of Tutoring throughout the territory.” Suzanne Nijdam, spokesperson for ANESF, explains: “People are afraid of being late and there is a significant group effect. »
In the report, the federations oppose the intervention of private organizations with the youngest. “Some may go to secondary schools to sell their training, that’s not normal,” adds Suzanne Nijdam. Another claim: the continuation of the Homologation of Tutoring, granted by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Therefore, the goal remains to inform students as well as possible and support them in demanding studies, even if the increase in precariousness is more current than ever.
Beyond the courses, an increasingly expensive cost of living
In addition, precariousness does not stop in the first year. “In the 4th year of Medicine, for example, the hourly rate for internships is 2.21 euros,” explains Blandine Fauvarque, ANEMF spokesperson. “It’s a part-time job, not to mention personal work and college obligations on the side. It is not compatible with a student job, and it puts some students in very precarious conditions. »
The associations also note a 6.59% increase in monthly living expenses in the health sectors. Rent, telephone, food, leisure: all students are worried, and those who live in Île-de-France are particularly affected with more expensive accommodation on average. “For the 2nd cycle we obtained a revaluation of 3 euros per month, but it is far from being enough”, laments Blandine Fauvarque. Last February, a Dress study recalled that 26% of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 live below the poverty line.
