FAQs

Nothing could be easier: after browsing the programmes, you may choose to apply to 1, 4 or to all of them. The only way to do it is to use the email contacts at the end of each presentation. Start exchanging and follow the instructions of the schools/universities in order to get their admission letter, if your dossier is up to their standards.

The French Embassy is not part of this process but is involved in supporting the students to reach the A2 level through the network of the Alliances françaises in India.

Level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) indicates the ability to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).

The CEFR has 6 levels, ranging from A1 to C2. So A2 is a beginner level that can get you admitted to a higher education programme in France!

Many students who learnt French at junior or senior high school have taken a test (DELF, DELF Junior or TCF) and know where they stand in terms of the CEFR.

If you have a good knowledge of French but have never taken a test, the schools will refer you to us, the French Embassy, or the Alliances françaises, so that you can take a free placement test.

If your test shows that you have an A2 level, you will be able to continue the admission process at higher education establishments that offer an classes internationales.

If you do not have the A2 level, a specific programme has been created within the Alliances françaises in India to take you to this level and beyond.

Therefore, it is better to have the A2 level, but even complete beginners have a shot at an admission, provided they follow the courses that will lead them to the required level before boarding.

You are not a minor when leaving India, you have been tested with A2 level in French language and one of the institutions in the catalog has admitted you! Congratulations. What you need to do is to create a dossier in the platform “Etudes en France” (https://pastel.diplomatie.gouv.fr/etudesenfrance,) and follow the guidelines. At this stage you can also reach out to the Campus France India team close to your home (https://www.inde.campusfrance.org/) and get assistance.

After completing the dossier, you will get an interview and will be able to apply for a student visa.

You can apply until the 31st of March. Admission procedures and selection of the candidates is the responsibility of the schools/universities. They will tell you how they intend to evaluate your academic level, after you have sent them an email in order to start the admission process. Admissions will be made on a continuous basis until the deadline is reached.

We have secured a very exciting and competitive training programme here in India, thanks to the network of the Alliances françaises. There you can progress between April to June from A0 (complete beginner) to A1, and between June to early August from A1 to A2.

If you don’t have the A2 level in September, you can still make it, even beyond A2, with the January intakes, should the higher education institutions present in the catalog offer this possibility. The Alliances françaises have also designed a A1 to A2 programme from September to December.

Minors whose birthday is before the 31st of December and are already advanced enough in French language can also take a course at the same moment to progress from A2 to B1.

Any student, including the ones who already have the A2 level at the end of grade 12 classes, can also strengthen their French language skills at the Alliance française before leaving to France, in any programme they can find there!

Being selected thanks to your grades and academic achievements is the first step. The conditional admission before joining a programme in France is linked to the A2 level threshold. After joining the programme itself, you have to progress until the B2 level, and this is the core of the classes internationales: you will be in France, immersed in the university/school that admitted you, in order to reach that B2 level. While learning French you will also get methodology courses, specialty courses (whether it is in science, engineering, humanities or arts). Some schools (not all of them : check it out) even club together the classes internationales and the first year of their curriculum, so that after completion of the B2 level you could be admitted directly in Year 2 if your academic tests fared good enough.

They will talk to you in English!

Of course, there is no age limit, you only have to be more than 18 years old with a little command of French language. Please note that after completing your classes internationales you will be mostly admitted to the first year of the undergraduate level. You will not keep your current progression and will have to start afresh.

For citizens of a multilingual country like India, learning French is not that challenging. Programmes have been designed to get to the objectives flawlessly. However this doesn’t mean that progressing in the language is an effortless operation. You will have to work hard, both in the linguistic and the academic side.

You have to look at the classes internationales as a foundation year. After that, a Licence (Bachelor) in France takes 3 years and a Master’s degree, 2 more years. In India a Bachelor degree is up to 4 or ₹ 5 years (in the case of Law studies). So, completing an classes internationales will not slow down your journey into higher studies. On the contrary it will expose you to a wider range of possibilities for your career or postgraduate studies, within the same amount of time spent studying.

This is the sole responsibility of the universities/schools who are part of the catalogue. If one or several programmes are aligned with your ambitions, just contact the schools by using the email provided in each presentation.

In case of an issue with the contacts at schools / universities, please inform us @ [email protected] and we will help sort it out. But everything should be fine: all the schools present in the catalog are definitely eager to get in touch with you and test your abilities.

Of course, you can do that and you would have a large choice at hand. However, an classes internationales drives you through a process of language learning tailored to your field and programme of choice, while already enjoying the environment of a French higher education institution. While performing your classes internationales, you get all the benefits of being a student of that institution, which makes the rest of the journey smoother. Do not forget also that barring the language, the admission process you are about to follow will give you a pre-admission certificate. You just have to worry, then, about setting your French language straight.

Think twice. Your newly acquired knowledge of the vast French system of higher education may lead you to wrong choices. Always take counseling from the institution that welcomed you. The possibility of getting another admission if you succeed in getting the B2 level may be granted as you will have to prove again to another school your academic worth, now that you speak the language. Be reminded though that this is possible (under many conditions) for non national degrees. If you joined an classes internationales bound to a national Licence diploma, you will have to get back to India and apply for another national Licence diploma in another university only for the next year. Why is that? Because then the admission process valid for the university that selected you will not work for any other university (you will follow another calendar and other admission processes this time). This is one of the advantages of getting pre-admission through the classes internationales initiative.

For any other non-national diploma, there are more open bridges between programmes and schools, but still you have to get another admission!