Study in France from Kuwait: English-Taught Routes, Ministry Rules and Costs in KWD (2027)

Leaving Kuwait for a degree in France? Who handles your file, which English-taught routes exist, what the Ministry of Higher Education expects before you enrol, and what a first year costs in dinars.

Who handles your application from Kuwait?

One office serves every nationality, inside the Institut français.

Campus France Kuwait describes itself as the starting point of any study project in France and the required contact for a long-stay study visa. The office sits inside the Institut français du Koweït in Jabriya, block 12, street 6, villa 41, and takes visitors on working days from 10:00 to 15:30. It prefers that you book a meeting through its contact form first (telephone +965 22 32 30 31).

Nationality is not the deciding factor. The office’s procedure sheet is addressed to Kuwaiti students and to foreign students resident in Kuwait who are not Schengen nationals. A Kuwaiti scans a passport; an expatriate scans a passport and both sides of the civil ID. So a teenager who grew up in Salmiya on a parent’s residence files here, not in the country named on the passport.

Two doors into Études en France

Since 15 November 2017 the paid online platform Études en France has been compulsory for pre-registration in France from Kuwait, with few exceptions. Which door you use depends on whether the French institution is connected to that platform.

Which English-taught routes can you choose?

Fees differ sharply, and “in English” needs checking line by line.

France has close to 3,500 public and private higher education institutions, the French Embassy notes, and Campus France’s Taught in English catalogue lists more than 1,600 programmes taught wholly or partly in English. Four families matter here.

How to test that a programme is really in English

“Partly in English” can hide French-taught modules, so ask three questions: which courses are in English, in which language exams and the final defence are held, and whether the internship expects French. There is also a Kuwait-specific reason to get this in writing. Campus France Kuwait requires your acceptance letter to state the start date, the level, the programme, how you were recruited and the language of instruction. If the letter is silent, ask the school to reissue it before you upload it.

For language proof, each institution sets its own level and the portal asks you to record your French and English levels with supporting documents. Our guides to studying in France without IELTS and to whether you need French cover the alternatives. French does have roots here: the embassy says Kuwait introduced it into its education system in 1966, and the Lycée français du Koweït teaches more than 1,400 pupils, close to 15% of them Kuwaiti.

What does Kuwait’s Ministry of Higher Education check?

This step decides whether the degree counts at home.

If the degree has to count in Kuwait, settle this before you pay any deposit. Two texts set the rules, and Campus France Kuwait links directly to the first.

The list of institutions you may join

Ministerial Decision 163 of 18 July 2019 is the updated list of institutions in France where enrolment in bachelor’s and postgraduate programmes is allowed. It rests on a 2012 decision that lets Kuwaiti students enrol abroad only at universities named by ministerial decision from the National Bureau for Academic Accreditation and Education Quality Assurance. The French Embassy counts 108 institutions on it, including 38 grandes écoles. The decision adds conditions on the programme itself:

• it must follow the traditional system, with regular attendance during the week;
• it must have completed its full duration by graduating its first cohort from the faculty offering it;
• bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes must not be executive programmes.

The equivalency regulation

The ministry’s Academic Certificate Equivalency Department evaluates qualifications above secondary level for citizens and expatriates, for employment in the public and private sectors, on request from the holder or from the employer. Its Arabic regulation on qualifications issued outside Kuwait, reference 17 of 2019, sets conditions that shape your decision today:

Which situation is yours?

Can a Kuwaiti scholarship fund your studies?

State schemes have their own lists and age limits.

Only the ministry decides who qualifies. Its Distinguished Scholarships programme for 2026/2027, for example, targets Kuwaiti secondary graduates aged 16 to 23 who hold no bachelor’s degree and are not state employees. An academic acceptance certified by the cultural office of the study country is required, in a distinguished specialisation or at an institution on the lists recommended by the accreditation bureau. An original IELTS or TOEFL result is on the document list. Rules can change for the next cycle.

French and European funding is searchable on Campus France’s Campus Bourses tool, filtered by nationality and level. If your employer is the sponsor, ask it for the same written confirmation you would ask the ministry for.

What does a first year cost in dinars?

France sets the minimum in euros; your budget lives in dinars.

All conversions use 343.529 fils per euro, the Central Bank of Kuwait rate published for 29 October 2026, rounded to the nearest dinar. The bank explains that the dinar has been pegged since 20 May 2007 to an undisclosed weighted basket of currencies, so these figures will drift with the euro.

A master’s at a public university, with twelve months of visa resources and the three procedure lines above, comes to about KWD 5,088 before flights, insurance and the visa fee. At a private institution charging €6,000 to €18,000, the same sum runs from about KWD 5,792 to 9,915. Tuition never replaces the monthly resources: France asks for both. Rental options are compared in our guide to student housing around Paris.

During studies, the student permit allows paid work of up to 964 hours a year (Service-Public F2713).

When should you start for 2027?

Public routes run on one yearly window; some private schools open several intakes.

1. 1
   Now: settle the Kuwaiti question

   Write to the cultural office if equivalency matters, and shortlist programmes in the catalogue.
2. 2
   October to mid-December 2026: first-year licence

   Campus France’s international page gives 1 October as the opening of the DAP for 2027-28 and mid-December as its close. University answers follow by 30 April 2027.
3. 3
   Autumn to early 2027: master’s and later years

   The candidate window moves each year. The office’s last published calendar, for 2021-22, ran from 1 October to 1 January, so confirm the current one.
4. 4
   As soon as you hold an acceptance: pre-consular file

   Campus France Kuwait wants this done at least three weeks before departure, and warns that waits at Capago lengthen in summer.
5. 5
   Three months to three weeks before the start: Capago

   That is the lodging window in the office’s sheet. Our France student visa guide from Kuwait covers it step by step.

Where AI2 fits for students in Kuwait

An applied route in English, for profiles it suits.

AI2 is one English-taught option among those above, for people drawn to applied AI, data, cybersecurity or connected systems. It is a private institute on a single campus at Écouen, 22 minutes from Paris Gare du Nord, and its programmes are taught 100% in English. You apply directly, attend an online interview, receive a written admission letter, then follow the pre-consular route. No GRE or GMAT is required.

The 18-month route combines 500 hours in Year 2 on campus, 280 hours of online platform modules and a 220-hour company project. Tracks are Applied AI and Data Science, Applied AI & Cybersecurity and Applied AI & IoT. School leavers start with the Bachelor in Applied AI. English at B2 is expected: IELTS 6.0, TOEFL iBT 72 or equivalent, or a medium-of-instruction certificate reviewed by admissions.

Each MSc final year awards the AI2 diploma and prepares a professional certification recognised by the French State and registered in the RNCP at level 7, master’s level (EQF 7): RNCP39978, Information Systems Architect for Industrial Processes, or RNCP40554, Internet of Things (IoT) Architect, both certified by DATAKOO, AI2’s parent company. Campus France lists RNCP-registered titles among diplomas whose value the French State guarantees. Recognition in Kuwait remains the ministry’s decision, as explained above.

Intakes are planned for February, May and September 2027. The priority deadline for February is 30 November 2026, and every international applicant is assessed automatically for the AI2 scholarship. See tuition fees for the full grid, and our guide for Gulf students if you are comparing several GCC routes.

Frequently asked questions

Send your certificates and transcripts: AI2 admissions confirms your entry year in writing and assesses you for the AI2 scholarship. Priority deadline for February 2027: 30 November 2026.

Apply nowSee the Data Science MSc