Université Paris-Saclay

Paris-Saclay brings together universities, grandes écoles and national research institutes on one plateau south of Paris. Its mathematics has headed the Shanghai subject ranking for several years running, and its physics and agriculture programmes are similarly strong.

It is a research campus rather than a city campus: quiet, purpose-built, and connected to central Paris by the RER.

Paris-Saclay is a research-intensive public university built from a cluster of institutions south of Paris, and its mathematics and physical sciences programmes are the ones that attract most international applicants.

• Completed Class 12 from a recognised board for undergraduate entry, with strong mathematics and science results where the programme is in those fields.
• French language certification at the level the programme specifies for French-taught study, which covers most undergraduate teaching.
• A recognised bachelor's degree for master's entry, assessed on the content of the curriculum rather than the title of the degree, with mathematics and physics master's programmes examining the syllabus closely.
• English language evidence for the English-taught master's programmes, of which there are a number in the sciences.
• Complete transcripts, certificates, a CV and a motivation letter, with academic references for research-track programmes.
• Application through the national platform for international applicants where that route applies to you, on its own timetable.

Because the university is composed of several member institutions and schools, the admission route depends on which one delivers your programme. Confirm which body is assessing your application before you submit.

Paris-Saclay is a public university, so its tuition sits within the French national framework rather than being set institutionally, and that makes the cost picture very different from Australia or the UK.

• Tuition is set by national regulation, by level of study, and is far lower than at public universities in the UK or Australia.
• A differentiated rate applies to non-EU students at French public universities, with institutions able to exempt some or all of it. How this is applied at Paris-Saclay must be confirmed for your programme rather than assumed.
• The member schools can sit outside the standard framework. Paris-Saclay includes engineering schools and other institutions that set their own fees, so a programme delivered by one of them may not be charged at the national university rate.
• A separate annual student and campus life contribution is payable alongside tuition and is collected nationally.
• Living costs are lower than central Paris but the plateau is not cheap, and commuting into the city is a recurring expense worth budgeting.
• Proof of funds is required for the visa, at a nationally set level.

Establish which institution within Paris-Saclay delivers your programme first, because that determines which fee structure applies. Then work from that body's published rate for your year of entry, and ask us to confirm it along with the visa requirement.

With tuition set nationally and comparatively low, funding at Paris-Saclay is directed mostly at living costs and at research, and the university's research concentration is where the strongest support sits.

• International master's scholarships run by the university, aimed at strong applicants to its master's programmes, particularly in the sciences, and applied for on their own timetable.
• French government scholarship programmes, administered nationally and through the diplomatic network, applied for well before the university deadlines.
• Exemption from the differentiated non-EU rate, decided by the institution in defined circumstances and functioning as fee support.
• Laboratory and research-linked funding, given the density of national research institutes on the Saclay plateau, often attached to a specific group or project.
• Doctoral contracts, which fund research students through a salaried contract arranged with a doctoral school and supervisor rather than through a student award.
• European mobility programmes for jointly delivered master's programmes.

For the mathematics and physics master's programmes, the scholarship and the admission are often assessed in the same round, so a late admission application can forfeit the funding even when it succeeds.

The university is spread across the Saclay plateau around Gif-sur-Yvette and Orsay, south-west of Paris — a purpose-built research and higher education cluster rather than a city campus, set in woodland and open country.

• This is a research campus first. National laboratories, research institutes and the university's own facilities sit alongside one another, and postgraduate students work inside that environment rather than adjacent to it.
• Mathematics and the physical sciences dominate the culture. The plateau holds one of the largest concentrations of mathematical and physical research anywhere, and seminar life reflects it.
• The setting is green and quiet — the Vallée de Chevreuse, woodland and villages rather than city streets — which suits students who want to work and is a shock to those expecting Paris.
• Paris is a train ride away, and the connection into the city is being progressively improved, but you are living outside it rather than in it, and evenings in central Paris mean planning the journey home.
• Student accommodation is administered through the national student services body, much cheaper than the private market and allocated by application, with residences on and around the plateau.
• Subsidised student restaurants and facilities through the same national system, which keeps daily costs down.

Sort accommodation on or near the plateau rather than in Paris. Commuting in daily from the city is slower and dearer than it looks on a map.