purchasing power, a major problem for students

From our special correspondent in Lille,

The wind sweeps the Grand’Place of Lille, the gusts exceed 120 km / h at the end of February. But that doesn’t stop Saada, 26, from running around looking for onlookers. ” Please can you answer a question ? I’m in the middle of exams and I have to do a radio report on the “freedom convoy” she says cheerfully.

Motivation and courage are needed more than ever for this young woman in her second year of private journalism school. Saada had to take out a student loan of 60,000 euros to be able to carry out the studies she wanted, she received a scholarship only for her first three years of study. ” When I return to the labor market, I will already have a loan to repay, even if I cannot find a job she resolved to say. Small jobs? “ Before, I used to go to classes then a job as a waitress, I came home at night, tired, at 3am, and classes resumed at 8am. It is extremely difficult, horrible, to study and work beside. And the young woman confides that she and many of her student friends feel completely neglected by politicians: We have the impression of not existing, quite simply, when we are having a hard time. »

A daily struggle

Paying for your studies, housing, food, finding a little job, student life is far from being a long calm river. According to a parliamentary inquiry report led by Marie-George Buffet (French Communist Party) and Sandrine Mörch (La République en Marche) in December 2020, because of the crisis, the closure of universities due to confinement and precariousness driven by the various consequences of the pandemic, one in six young people had to stop their studies at the end of the school and university year.

Lille, capital of Hauts-de-France, near the Belgian border, is one of the major French student cities. On the various campuses, no fewer than 120,000 people use the benches in the amphitheatres. But 20,000 of them do not manage, or at least with great difficulty.

In a decrepit block of the natural sciences center, SN2, Allane handles mysterious products, some of which are, he explains, extremely dangerous. ” don’t touch anything “, he warns. The 24-year-old student is in master 2 IBVEM (Innovations in plant, enzymatic and microbial biotechnology). This year, he is “gratified” by his tutor, 3.90 euros per hour. He previously received a 300 euro scholarship per month, which allowed him to have a student room (a 9m2 ” unsanitary » for 280 euros per month, 390 euros per month for an 18m2).

Today, the Crous (Regional Center for University and School Works) refused him accommodation for his sixth year of university. ” We are really all in a housing struggle “, laments the young scientist. Allane therefore went back to live with his parents. Despite working days of more than ten hours, he endures an average of three hours in the car a day, the price to pay for not sleeping outside and above all for not having to give up his studies. To eat, he is content with Crous meals at 1 euro (3.50 euros for non-scholarship holders). ” We are entitled to lunch and dinner, so sometimes, when I have dinner at my parents’ house, I give my evening meal to other students in need. It should be noted that the AGORAé, social and solidarity grocery stores, have registered more young people in a few months than since their creation in 2011. Also, nearly 80% of the students questioned by the Co’p1-Solidarités Étudiants association in 2021 declare having resorted to food aid for the very first time last year.

Pauline, 23, Allane’s colleague in the first year of a CIFRE thesis (industry/university collaboration), confirms it: without parents, student life is laborious. ” Me, I have no complaints, I am now paid, because I am in thesis and before, I was housed and fed by my parents who live in Lille. Without the homemaker, I couldn’t have done what I’m doing today. “, she says, aware of being privileged.

Solidarity in action

Thursday student evening obliges, Loline looks exhausted this Friday morning. The icy wind does not weaken on the port of Lille. A cigarette rolled between her lips, the 20-year-old girl, on a university break, lugs boxes of food recovered from the ” Léa’s baskets “. ” When you don’t know how you’re going to eat at the end of the month, good grades, you don’t care. » « I don’t have a scholarship, because one of my parents earns too much. Except that none of my parents help me financially. It took me four months to find accommodation, and today, without the free packed lunches, I wouldn’t be able to eat properly. “If Loline claims to be” an optimist at heart », this is not the case for everyone. More than 50% of young people are worried about their mental health and 23% of students have already had suicidal thoughts, according to MP Karine Lebon.

While waiting to resume the course of her studies, Loline looks for odd jobs and benefits from state aid, the “youth guarantee”. To make herself useful, she volunteers with the Federation of Student Associations of Lille (FAEL) which has embarked on a solidary solidarity project and which, at the base, did not appear in its statutes.

Since March 2021, it has been offering free distributions of packed lunches, with no selection criteria. While transferring more than two tons of food from a shed to a van, Martin Murcia recounts. A 24-year-old student in speech therapy, he is also president of the FAEL, created in 2008 which, at the level of the territory of the European metropolis of Lille, brings together all the local student associations. At the time of the health crisis, the federation started from a simple observation: the precariousness of students was increasing.

Indeed, if the “student galleys” have always existed, the Covid has created dramatic situations for those who have lost their part-time jobs (servers, etc.) and, even if the situation tends to improve, some are still in pain.

Respond to an emergency

Altruism and solidarity at work, the FAEL decides to set up a system of free packed lunches that can feed a person for a week, thanks to the help of partnerships and sponsorship. Today, more than 350 baskets are distributed each Saturday to students in need, without selection criteria; the only request made to meal requesters is to present a student card. Among them, analyzes Martin, “ many foreign students who are not necessarily aware of the various aids offered by the State “. Indeed, according to the National Observatory of Student Life, those who are furthest from their families as well as foreigners are among the hardest hit by precariousness.

In the baskets, food therefore, but also shampoo, sanitary protection, toothpaste, toilet paper, detergent, etc. What to live with social dignity. All the products contained in the baskets are either donated or purchased. The University of Lille indeed subsidizes the FAEL project, as does the region, the department, the town hall of Villeneuve-d’Ascq, around 75,000 euros last year.

Word-of-mouth is working and the project has a strong resonance, ” even if some students are ashamed to come and get food “, explains Maxence Vancassel, the treasurer of the federation, between two round trips between the storage shed and the local distribution. To deal with this problem, distributions are made off campus, in a local area, far from colleagues or teachers. ” Some students also approach us for housing problems, but unfortunately, at the moment we cannot do more “, he regrets. And for good reason, setting up the solidarity baskets requires such logistics that the volunteers devote three full-time days a week to them (sometimes even from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.). A long-term work which obtains unanimous recognition, but ” we would like to do more says Martin, motivated more than ever when you ask yourself: how can you find so much strength (physical and mental) to devote so much time on a voluntary basis to this noble cause?

Deal with the failures of the State?

” It’s a bit like the story of the cat that bites its tail, Martin admits. We are aware of carrying out a mission that is not ours. But students are in demand. We work in partnership with companies that can afford to give, to exempt from tax, and therefore it would be stupid to refuse. In any case, we know that public policies are systematically behind. And the president insisted: the authorities need to be made aware. The FAEL is working in partnership with the town hall of Lille to solve the problem in the long term and will work with all the entities that want it.

But how to help students in need when universities have seen their numbers grow by 16% in ten years, according to figures from the Ministry of Higher Education? Especially since, despite an increase in public spending for higher education, the average budget per student fell by 7.5% over the same period. According to an Ipsos – Sopra Steria poll for the Federation of General Student Associations on February 22, 66% of young people believe that political leaders are little or not at all interested in their concerns.

Thus, as long as it is necessary and while waiting for policies that will allow students to meet their needs, the distribution of packed lunches will continue. ” We were told that the Restos du Coeur were ephemeral. We see they are still there “, worries Maxence. ” And if tomorrow we stopped, we know very well that more than half of the students we help would not go to the Restos du Coeur or the Red Cross, because they would feel even more ashamed in the eyes of others. »

A situation that is likely to last, since now, even during the holidays, the distribution of baskets is at work.