This morning I participated in an exceptional Consular Council of School Grants for the U.K. An unusual meeting, since the Council traditionally only meets twice a year in this configuration.
This third meeting was made necessary by the implementation, since that time, of 20% VAT on tuition fees in French institutions in the United Kingdom. The objective of this exceptional session : to review the scholarship files already processed in order to take into account the new taxation and avoid that it penalizes the poorest families. As the President of the Consular Council pointed out, this meeting follows a videoconference with the Minister for French Abroad, Laurent Saint-Martin.
He reaffirmed the State’s commitment to mitigate as far as possible the consequences of this tax development for families. As soon as our exchanges ended, we launched the first CCB for 2025/2026.
We remain fully committed to ensuring equitable access to French education abroad, especially in a more complex fiscal and budgetary context for UK families.
