Crous deploys success residences to support new students

They take their first steps at university and many discover life independently, far from their parents. To support new students, the Crous is deploying success residences in 12 additional cities for the 2026 academic year, there were only six until now. First-year scholarship holders benefit from increased support by staying close to more experienced students who will be their tutors: advice on courses, learning about student life, etc. The system helps combat isolation and dropping out of school.

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“It creates a kind of solidarity”

In Aix-en-Provence, a residence for success has just opened its doors. Having barely arrived in the city to begin a double degree in law and literature, Inès-Lou, 18, already knows her next-door neighbors. All are first-year scholarship students who, like her, joined the Crous success residence. There are around twenty of them housed on the same floor. "We're all face to face, side by side. It reassures me, I tell myself that if I ever have a little blues, I can knock on the next door. If we're there, it's because in general we're in a bit of financial difficulty compared to others, so it creates a kind of solidarity."

Everyone here will have four hours of tutoring per week, with more experienced students. Valuable help for Tilaï, 17, suffering from autism. “I told myself that I had to have someone who could help me learn how to work, because I have no methodology.” And then Tilaï comes from a very small village in the Hautes-Alpes, the city is new to him. “One of the tutors showed me an application which gives all the good tips and what’s more, there will be group activities like a visit to Aix,” he says happily. “It’s super cool, we’re going to discover the city.”

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Around one in two students drops out in the first year

At the start of the school year, the questions asked by the first years do not necessarily concern classes: “Many do not know how to cook, the first problem,” says Soléa, who is in her 3rd year of law school. Perrine, she's in her master's degree. Both chose to be tutors after a difficult start at university. “I repeated a year because I was totally lost. The language of college is a dialect all its own,” says Soléa. “The first year is a little complicated for everyone,” admits Perrine. “We’re going to talk about organization, working methods and also stress management.”

A student's success is as much at stake in the lecture hall as in the evening in their room, explains Bénédicte Durand, president of Cnous, the National Center for University and School Work, while around one in two students drops out in the first year. “Isolation is one of the factors,” she says. “Moreover, we observe an even greater dropout among scholarship recipients than first-year [students] who are not scholarship recipients. It is important, for them in particular, that there be as supportive a social life as possible in their residence.”

The Crous has set itself the objective of deploying a success residence per academy by 2028.