French Level for University in France: B2 or C1

Two levels cover almost everything: B2 to enter a licence, C1 to enter a master. That is not a rule of thumb, it is what French universities actually publish.

We collected the admission pages of 33 French public universities and read every statement about required French. After discarding language-course catalogues, diploma names and English requirements, 48 verified requirements remained, across 28 institutions. The distribution is clean, and the two averages hide the part that decides applications.

What French level do French universities require?

B2 at undergraduate level, C1 at graduate level, with almost no overlap.

Twenty-four of the 27 published undergraduate requirements name B2, which is 89%, and not a single one asks for C1. The Université de Tours states it as flatly as anyone: Le niveau de français minimum exigé par l’Université de Tours est fixé au niveau B2, “the minimum French level required by the Université de Tours is set at level B2”.

The three B1 entries are worth naming rather than averaging away, because none of them is a normal degree application. Strasbourg’s Faculté des Langues sets B1 for its own incoming language students, Lille publishes B1 for applicants in exile, and Lorraine’s Nancy social sciences faculty writes that B1 to B2 is souhaité, wished for, which is exchange-programme language rather than an admission gate. If you are applying to a French degree from abroad, treat B2 as the floor with no realistic exception.

Why does the master requirement jump to C1?

Because the work changes from receiving French to producing it.

At master level, 16 of 21 requirements specify C1, 76%, against zero at licence. That is the sharpest discontinuity in the whole dataset. A licence student listens, reads and answers exam questions; a master’s student writes a dissertation that will be marked as academic French by people who have never met a learner.

Several faculties say the quiet part out loud. Paris 1’s IEDES writes that un niveau B2 minimal est requis, mais le niveau C1 est fortement recommandé - “a minimum B2 level is required, but C1 is strongly recommended” - which in a competitive selection means B2 files lose. The Université de Franche-Comté is blunter for its training-engineering master: vous devez impérativement attester d’un DALF C1.

The four masters that stay at B2 are worth noting for what they have in common: they are science, engineering and general-admission routes, where the dissertation is shorter and part of the reading is in English. Sorbonne Université’s Faculté des Sciences allows Licence 2, Licence 3, Master 1 ou Master 2 on a single B2 minimum, while its Faculté des Lettres moves to C1 at master. Discipline predicts the level better than prestige does.

The cost of that extra rung is the thing to plan around, not the label. The step from B2 to C1 is one of the longest on the scale, and how long it takes to learn French converts it into the hours it really represents. What separates the two levels in practice is set out in B1 vs B2 French.

Can the same university require two different levels?

Yes, and this is the finding that most guides miss entirely. Ten of the 28 institutions publish two different levels depending on the faculty.

The mechanism is administrative. In France the requirement is set by the composante - the faculty, UFR or institute - and not by the university’s central international office. A search for “does Sorbonne Université require B2” has no correct answer: the Faculté des Lettres and the Faculté des Sciences publish different numbers for the same degree cycle, on different websites, both official.

The pattern repeats at Paris Cité, where the Sociétés et Humanités undergraduate route asks B2 and the FLE and didactics master asks C1; at Paris-Saclay, B2 for distance-learning licence and C1 for its international business M2; and at Rennes 2, B2 for exchange and C1 for every master except Sciences Sociales.

The practical consequence is that the only page worth reading is the one belonging to your faculty. The university homepage is frequently more permissive than the department that will actually rule on your file, and neither is obliged to tell you the other exists.

Is “B2” the same bar at every university?

No, and this is where a valid diploma gets refused.

The DELF is graded out of 100. France Éducation international awards it at 50 out of 100, with a minimum of 5 out of 25 on each of the four papers. Universities are free to demand more of the same certificate, and some do.

Twenty-five points separate the official pass mark from the highest requirement we found, a threshold 50% above the level at which the diploma is awarded. A candidate holding a DELF B2 at 58 out of 100 is genuinely B2, is refused at Nantes, and would not be looked at in Angers.

Nobody publishes this as a general fact because it is not a national rule; it is 28 separate decisions. But it means the sentence “I have a B2” is not an answer to “do I meet the requirement”. Which certificate to sit in the first place is covered in DELF, DALF, TCF and TEF compared.

Which French skill do the thresholds actually target?

Writing, every time.

Four institutions publish a per-skill floor, and all four name written production; only Lyon 2 adds speaking. This is a filter that a balanced test score passes and an unbalanced one fails. It also reveals what the universities are really screening for: the ability to hand in twenty pages of French, not the ability to follow a lecture.

If you are preparing for admission rather than for a visa, this is where to spend your hours. The visa and residence-permit thresholds work in the opposite direction, testing spoken interaction first.

What should you aim for?

Aim one level above your target requirement, and check three things rather than one.

Applying for a licence, sit the TCF DAP if you are outside the EU and going into first or second year, because the demande d’admission préalable names that test specifically. Applying for a master, treat C1 as the real requirement even when the page says B2, because in a selective file a B2 competes against C1 applicants.

Then verify, in this order: your faculty’s page rather than the university’s, the score demanded and not only the level, and any per-skill minimum hidden underneath. Those three checks account for every rejection pattern visible in this dataset.

This is also the argument for a curriculum cut finely enough to see the gap you are actually closing. The distance from a B2 that passes at 50 to a B2 that passes at 75 is invisible on the CEFR scale and very visible on a marking sheet, which is why Gallus splits A1 to C1 into 61 levels rather than five.

One limit on the numbers. These are published requirements, not universities: French institutions publish per faculty, so 48 requirements come from 28 institutions and the unit being counted is the page, not the campus. Administrative pages also change without notice, and everything here was read on 29 July 2026.