After the baccalaureate in Africa: stay home or study abroad?

Information checked on 2 November 2026.

After the baccalaureate in Africa, you have three paths, not two: study at home, leave straight away for first-year bachelor's (licence 1), or study one or two years at home and then leave for L2, L3 or a master's. None is right for everyone. The choice depends on your grades, your family's budget, the scholarships you can aim for and your maturity. This guide compares the three using the official figures in force for the 2027-2028 intake, then gives you the questions to ask yourself before deciding.

Stay or leave after the baccalaureate: the three paths in one table

The French amounts come from service-public.gouv.fr: they are the differentiated tuition fees paid by non-European students at public universities. The full comparison with Belgium, Germany, Canada and Turkey is in our article on the cost of a year of study by country.

Path 1: study at home after the baccalaureate

Staying is not giving up. It is often the soundest choice when the family budget cannot cover a year abroad, or when you do not yet have a clear plan.

The advantages:

• cost: you stay close to your family, with no foreign rent, no plane ticket, no visa;
• time to mature your plan: many students discover their real path in first year;
• a local degree that counts: a bachelor's earned at home later opens the door to master's programmes abroad, where most scholarships are.

The limits: some fields do not exist or lack places in your country, and strikes or delayed calendars sometimes stretch out studies. Ask students from previous years before you enrol.

Staying at home does not stop you preparing what comes next. You can already join your class group on Compatri Study, find students in the same stream in other cities, and revise with them.

Path 2: leave from first-year bachelor's

Leaving right after the baccalaureate plunges you straight into the host country's system. For France, it is the most structured path, and the most selective.

The procedure for France

Campus France puts it plainly: with a baccalaureate from your country, you must make a prior admission request (DAP) and follow the Études en France procedure. For the 2027-2028 intake, the DAP is open from 1 October to 15 December 2026. It covers students living in one of the 75 countries of the procedure, including Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Guinea, Gabon, Congo and the DRC.

Direct consequence: your application happens during your final year, before the bac itself. Your reports from Seconde, Première and Terminale speak for you. Our article on preparing your application file from Première sets out this calendar.

The criteria you will face

Campus France offices publish recommended criteria. In Togo, for first-year bachelor's:

• no repeated year in high school;
• a minimum average of 12/20, from Seconde to Terminale, in exams and in the core subjects of the chosen programme.

These criteria do not close the door, but they show where your chances lie. The country-by-country detail is in our article on Campus France eligibility criteria, and you can place your profile in a few minutes with the Campus France simulator (in French), free and anonymous.

The cost of the first year

In France, count on €2,902 in tuition for a bachelor's in 2026-2027 (against €178 at the national rate). Universities may exempt some of their foreign students, but it is never automatic: a May 2026 decree caps these exemptions at 30% of foreign students in 2026-2027 and 25% in 2027-2028. Build your budget on the full rate.

For the visa, you must prove at least €877.50 per month, or €10,530 over twelve months. In Belgium, the Immigration Office requires €1,062 net per month for 2026-2027. These amounts must be proven before departure: our article on the minimum funds for a student visa explains what is accepted.

What it takes to succeed at 17 or 18

Leaving early means handling rent, a bank, a residence permit and classes where nobody checks your attendance, on your own. Some students thrive, others lose their first year. Be honest with yourself about this, and talk it over with your parents.

Path 3: one or two years at home, then leave

It is the least known path, and often the smartest. You start your bachelor's at home, then apply abroad for L2, L3 or, after your bachelor's, a master's.

A different procedure for France

Campus France specifies: for L2, L3 and master's, there is no DAP. You follow the Études en France procedure up to the visa, with the calendar published by the Campus France office in your country. In Togo, for example, programmes other than first-year bachelor's have until 31 December 2026 for the 2027 intake.

The criteria change too

For a bachelor's or master's application, Campus France Togo recommends:

• no going back more than one year: if you have completed L2 at home, applying for L1 in France is still possible, but no further back;
• a minimum average of 12/20;
• transcripts showing 60, 120 or 180 credits earned before the visa application;
• for L3 or master's 1, a bachelor's completed in no more than 4 years in the private sector, 5 years in the public sector.

In other words, your university grades now count more than your bac. A successful first year at home can make up for an average bac.

Why it often pays off

Scholarships cluster after the bachelor's. In our scholarship directory (in French), checked against official sites, 90 of the 122 scholarships are open to master's students, only 42 to bachelor's students. The French government's Eiffel scholarship (in French), for example, funds only master's and doctoral studies, with a maximum age of 29 for the master's, and only a French institution can submit the application. We work through this calculation in studying abroad for a bachelor's or a master's.

You also spend one or two fewer years paying rent and tuition abroad, and you leave more mature.

The trap: credits earned at home are not automatically recognised abroad. The host university decides whether you enter L2, L3 or L1. Our article on the recognition of an African bac abroad explains these steps country by country.

Scholarships by path

Bachelor's scholarships exist, but they are rare and fiercely contested. Examples checked today on the official sites:

Note the Türkiye Bursları age limit: past 21, the bachelor's is out of reach, but the master's remains open until 30. For scholarships open to new graduates of the bac, read our guide to scholarships for high school students after the bac, and turn on scholarship alerts (in French) to receive the deadlines for your nationality.

Stay or leave: the questions to ask yourself

Before choosing, answer these questions in writing. Do it with your parents if it is their money funding the plan.

For the detailed comparison between France, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, read studying in Europe from Africa. And if your parents are asking the same questions, our article on supporting your child from the bac to departure is written for them.

Ask those who have already chosen

The best advice comes from those who took one of the three paths two or three years ago. On Compatri, the volunteer mentors of the diaspora answer students who are hesitating: you send them a connection request with a message, and the conversation opens if they accept. Ask them what they would do differently.

Compatri is not Campus France, an embassy or a scholarship body: only the official information cited below is binding.

Official sources

• Campus France: applying through the Études en France procedure (DAP and outside DAP)
• Campus France Togo: recommended criteria
• Service-public.gouv.fr: tuition fees for foreign students from 2026
• Service-public.gouv.fr: funds required from a foreign student
• Belgian Immigration Office: sufficient means of subsistence
• Wallonia-Brussels Federation: applying for secondary school equivalence
• Campus France: the Eiffel excellence scholarship programme
• Türkiye Bursları: scholarship programmes
• Mastercard Foundation: Scholars Program