Université de Rennes
Rennes, France
Specific Health Access Pathway (PASS, 1 year)
<p><strong>Admissions</strong></p><p>Applications are made through Parcoursup for a candidate holding the French or European baccalauréat, selection on academic record favouring physics and chemistry and life and earth sciences in the penultimate year, complemented where possible by supplementary mathematics in the final year. A non-EU national holding a foreign secondary school leaving qualification falls under the <strong>prior admission application</strong>, the white file through the Études en France platform or the green file if they already reside in France, with the campaign closing on <strong>15 December</strong> and a TCF-DAP test required. Admission then requires clearing the Rennes <strong>double threshold</strong>, passing the year not being sufficient if the ranking does not place the candidate among those admitted. Examinations are divided between end-of-first-semester papers in December and second-semester papers in the spring, followed by orals in June. Rennes tutoring stresses the need to prepare those orals methodically, despite a prevailing discourse suggesting it is enough to turn up as one is.</p><p><strong>Who it is for</strong></p><p>The specific health access pathway combines a health major with a disciplinary minor, and runs across five sites: Rennes, Vannes, Lorient, Saint-Brieuc and Pontivy. The choice of site commits more than an address, since <strong>each satellite has its own options and its own allocation of places</strong>. The choice of minor moreover follows a simple but often neglected rule: it determines the degree of reorientation in the event of failure, and choosing it by default, notably in law, condemns the student to a second year in a discipline they did not want.</p><p><strong>Fees</strong></p><p>PASS falls within the first cycle: <strong>€178</strong> in national fees for <strong>2026-2027</strong>, plus <strong>€105</strong> for the student life contribution. A non-EU student who is not exempt pays <strong>€2,902</strong> in first-cycle differentiated fees. Means-tested scholarship holders are exempt from both the fees and the contribution, and French government scholarship holders benefit from exemption as of right, outside the quota of discretionary exemptions capped by the decree of <strong>19 May 2026</strong> at 30% of non-European students in 2026-2027, 25% in 2027-2028 and 20% from 2028-2029. Choosing a satellite site rather than Rennes may moreover reduce housing costs appreciably, an item often larger than the fees themselves.</p><p><strong>Careers</strong></p><p>Successful candidates continue into the second year of medicine, midwifery, dentistry, pharmacy or physiotherapy. The pressure on applications should be measured: <strong>19,912 applications</strong> in <strong>2023</strong> across the five sites, which places the institution among the most sought after in France.</p>
Health-Access Bachelor's Degrees (LAS, 3 years)
<p><strong>Admissions</strong></p><p>The same application routes as the specific pathway, Parcoursup or the <strong>prior admission application</strong> closing on <strong>15 December</strong> for a non-EU candidate. The double threshold applies here as on the specific pathway: passing the year with the health option, then ranking above the threshold set by the panel. A candidate interested in the rehabilitation professions must check which degree actually opens the programme they are aiming at, since not all lead to the same outcomes.</p><p><strong>Who it is for</strong></p><p>The health-access bachelor's degree combines a disciplinary degree with a health option, with the number of places published degree by degree for each intake. The programmes accessible by this route cover medicine, midwifery, dentistry and pharmacy. Physiotherapy falls under a particular regime, accessible through the specific pathway and through certain degrees only, among them physics, chemistry and geosciences with a health option. That arrangement rests on agreements with the Rennes rehabilitation training institute, which also opens access to occupational therapy and podiatry.</p><p><strong>Fees</strong></p><p>The same first-cycle scale as the specific pathway: <strong>€178</strong> in national fees and <strong>€105</strong> for the student life contribution in <strong>2026-2027</strong>, and <strong>€2,902</strong> in differentiated fees for a non-EU student who is not exempt. The three-year duration multiplies that cost accordingly, which makes obtaining a French government scholarship, exempting as of right, particularly decisive on this route.</p><p><strong>Careers</strong></p><p>A student not admitted keeps their progress within their disciplinary degree and may apply again in later years, within the limit of the two regulatory attempts. Successful candidates join the second year of the health programmes, access to the rehabilitation professions depending on the degree followed.</p>
Second and Third Cycles of Medical Studies
<p><strong>Admissions</strong></p><p>Access comes through passing the first year, whether the specific pathway or a health-access bachelor's degree. Rennes tutoring supports students throughout the course, with weekly revision sessions, practice examinations and annotated past papers, an arrangement recognised as one of the most active in France. The regulatory position should be followed closely. On <strong>17 April 2026</strong>, the ministers responsible for higher education and for health confirmed the end of PASS and the healthaccess bachelor's degrees, in favour of a single route organised in three blocks and applied for through Parcoursup, from the <strong>2027</strong> intake. The Conference of Deans of Medicine, in a letter of 25 March 2026, and then the National Academy of Medicine judged that timetable unrealistic and asked for postponement to <strong>2028</strong>; the government is holding to 2027 and no final decision has been published to date. The <strong>2026-2027</strong> intake remains governed in full by the arrangements described here.</p><p><strong>Who it is for</strong></p><p>After the first year, the course continues to the State diploma of doctor of medicine, backed by the Rennes teaching hospital. The Breton hospital network, structured around the Rennes centre but fed by the establishments of Vannes, Lorient, Saint-Brieuc and Brest, offers clinical placements spread across the whole region. That configuration is of particular interest to students drawn to general practice and to work in less densely served territory, Brittany counting several under-provided areas.</p><p><strong>Fees</strong></p><p>The second cycle falls on the master's-level scale: <strong>€255</strong> in national fees for <strong>2026-2027</strong>, plus <strong>€105</strong> for the student life contribution, with differentiated fees for non-EU students standing at <strong>€3,950</strong> at this level. The third cycle escapes that regime, students enrolled in the third cycle of health studies <strong>not being subject to differentiated fees</strong>. Hospital students receive placement allowances from the fourth year onwards, and residents are salaried.</p><p><strong>Careers</strong></p><p>Graduates reach the third cycle through the national examinations at the end of the second cycle, which replaced the former national ranking examinations in <strong>2023</strong>: the <strong>national digital examinations</strong> in October of the sixth year count for 60% of the mark, the <strong>objective structured clinical examinations</strong> in the spring for 30%, and the training record for 10%. The single national ranking has given way to a <strong>national matching procedure</strong> between the candidate's choices of specialty and region and the posts open. They then practise in France or, subject to recognition of qualifications, abroad.</p>
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