In Petit-Quevilly, the idea began to gain ground following the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, the Seine-Maritime municipality has not escaped the increase in student precariousness observed since the pandemic. In this small town of 22,000 inhabitants, the food distributions organised every two weeks by the COP1 association have an average of 150 registered participants. “And then, two years ago, we established a minimum old-age income that works well. We told ourselves that we had to offer the same to students.”explains Charlotte Goujon, mayor (PS) of the city.
Officially launched this summer, the Minimum Student Income (RME) will be available for the start of the university year. “increase” which can be applied for by young people under 25 years of age, enrolled in higher education and resident in the town for one year. “Young people will receive up to 100 euros per month depending on their remaining life span, once all their expenses have been deducted”the mayor specifies.
Petit-Quevilly, Chenôve (Côte-d’Or), Dunkerque (North), Gravelines (North), Plougastel (Finistère)… so many towns have created an EMR to support young people in their area in their higher education project. In total, there are several dozen municipalities, left-wing but also centre-right, which have set up such a system, the modalities of which differ from one community to another.
“Study Assignment”
Among the criteria: having higher education, being of an age limit, having lived in the city for a certain period of time, having limited resources. The amounts also vary: from 100 to 4,000 euros per year. Some cities ask the young people affected for compensation. In Berre-l’Etang (Bouches-du-Rhône), for example, the RME, which amounts to 2,000 euros per year, is presented as a “association” between the municipality and the student who agrees to carry out “voluntary citizen missions” three days a year.
All these initiatives aim to supplement a national aid system that is not responding to the increase in poverty among the student population: either because the amount of the grants is insufficient or because students, especially those from the middle class, are not eligible.
For students who benefit from an RME in their municipality, the support can be real. In Grande-Synthe (North), for example, 196 students received the RME in 2022, with a budget of 187,624 euros. “That is, an average of 957 euros per person”, According to the city council, however, these experiments affect a small number of young people, generally in low numbers. “This concept of the RME as a supplement to income is very different from the concept of student wages proposed by student organizations after World War II.”recalls Aurélien Casta, sociologist and research associate at the universities of Lille and Paris-Nanterre.
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