AEFE

The Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE) is a government institution supervised by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Founded in 1990, it is responsible for monitoring and managing the network of French schools abroad.

The AEFE is the guarantor of the French education system abroad. It plays a key role in expanding France’s cultural and linguistic influence throughout the world and serves to boost the appeal of French higher education.

Steering, supporting, advising the world’s largest network of nationally accredited schools operating outside national borders

The AEFE has two offices, in Paris and Nantes, and coordinates relationships with the 494 accredited schools in the network:

  • 74 schools managed directly, which are branches of the AEFE
  • 156 schools under contract with AEFE and managed by associations or foundations
  • 264 partner schools

Our missions

  • Ensuring the continuity of French government education for children living abroad whith their families
  • Taking part in educational cooperation by nurturing special relations with the culture, language and educational system in the host country
  • Broadening the influence of French language and culture by taking in foreign students
  • Helping families pay tuition fees while endeavoring to keep costs to a minimum
  • Awarding grants to students of French nationality attending one of the network’s schools

Our actions

  •  Managing the human resources and financial aid provided by the government for French schools abroad
  •  Recruiting, assigning and remunerating qualified teaching staff, coordination and inspection staff, and managerial staff
  •  Assessing teachers and teaching methods, as well as non-teaching staff
  •  Steering and managing staff training
  •  Awarding grants for the management of schools, investments, equipment and teaching aids
  •  Helping French students with scholarships
  •  Offering merit scholarships to the most successful foreign students seeking to pursue their higher education in France

The world’s largest educational network

  • 494 Schools
  • 135 Countries
  • 330,000 Students

A high-quality environment

  • 6,500 qualified staff members on transfer from the French Ministry of Education to the AEFE
  • 15,000 locally recruited staff members

School accreditation a seal of quality

Accreditation by the French Ministry of Education certifies that the teaching provided by the school complies with the demands, curricula, teaching objectives and organizational rules of the French education system. All students from accredited schools can pursue their education in another French school without having to take an entry examination.

Schools are required to periodically prove that they meet accreditation criteria (acceptance of both French and foreign nationals, preparation for French examinations, employment of qualified French staff).

Financial Assistance for tuition

Means-tested scholarships are available to help families fund their children’s tuition. French schoolchildren aged 3 or more enrolled on the Register of French Nationals Living Abroad and attending a French School are entitled to this financial assistance.