Competition postponed: students “lost time and money”

“It feels like you've worked hard for nothing, wasted time and money. For Manon, who was preparing for the common competition of the Institutes of Political Studies (IEP), as for many students, the disappointment is significant.

Engineering or post-baccalaureate business schools, Paces competition (medicine), journalism schools, etc. The ministries of national education and higher education announced on Tuesday 24 March that all the competitions and exams planned for the weeks Future plans would be canceled or postponed until late May, if not later, due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

5,000 to 10,000 euros per year

The situation is all the more worrying for tens of thousands of students, since in many fields, they have used "private prep", in the evening or full time. The prices of these establishments are high: it generally takes between 5,000 and 10,000 euros per year, to which are added the registration fees for the tests.

While almost all of the training has often been done, the majority of these preps do not intend to refund the tuition fees, even partially. "There will be no reimbursement insofar as, despite the confinement, we ensure the continuity of our training, at a distance", argues Carol Huron, head of the Cours Galien, in Paris. Same story at Sup Santé, which prepares for paramedical competitions.

The students are all the more bitter that beyond a simple postponement, it is also sometimes the nature of the tests that is modified. All post-bac competition entries are, for example, canceled. They will be replaced by an examination of the candidates' files. A cold shower for Léa, who considers that this change "greatly reduces" her chances, and considerably reduces the advantages that her prep offered her.

Several hundred euros of registration fees

"Even if the modalities of the competition change, we learned a lot from teachers who were there throughout the year," relativizes Inès, who was preparing for entry into IEP. “On the other hand, we are rather expecting a reimbursement from the schools, with which we have paid several hundred euros in registration fees to write papers. Students have also asked the IEPs to take the competition next year, while others, like Nino, are waiting for "a gesture from the state, to try to erase the injustices that are imposed on us." "

Pauline, in a speech therapy prep which costs 3600 euros per year, is also awaiting reimbursement of registration for the competitions, but would understand that her training does not reimburse her: “They will reread all our files to help us the best. It is a benevolent preparation, which is as much caught off guard as we are. "