Laurent Saint-Martin made the commitment during his trip to London last March to the teaching team of the French Lycée Charles de Gaulle and parents of pupils, A video conference dedicated to raising the VAT rate for private institutions in the United Kingdom was organised on Wednesday 2 April, in the presence of Ambassador Hélène Duchêne and the director of the French Education Agency abroad.
I, along with the minister, the embassy and consular services, the elected officials and the parents of students, have been mobilized from the beginning to support families in the face of this decision that is severely penalizing them.
As the minister recalled in his opening remarks, this VAT increase was announced by the British government and then voted on by Parliament in a particular national context related to Brexit, the general rise in the cost of living and access to Labour power. Although this is directly reflected in the budget of French families living in London, it is a sovereign decision made by a sovereign country. In this, the ministry and the embassy services continue to plead, through diplomatic actions with the British authorities, for special treatment to be given to French schools. In parallel to these discussions with its British counterparts, the ministry is studying the best ways of supporting families in the face of this increase, in a constrained French budgetary context.
As such, the Minister announced that a third Consular Board for School Grants, specifically dedicated to this topic, will be held on April 29. He will be particularly attentive to ensuring that bursaries can keep up with the increase in tuition fees and vigilant about the threshold effects this could have on some families.
Finally, some figures were recalled during the exchange:
- After a significant decline in applications for scholarships related to the Brexit (370 requests for scholarships processed for the year 2018-2019, 230 for the year 2023-2024), these seem to stabilize (250 for the year 2024-2025) ;
- Although the funds allocated to exchanges are down for 2025, they remain higher than the funds used in 2024.
