Parcoursup: 126,652 applicants still waiting for a place in higher education

Paris – 12 July 2026: Following the conclusion of the main admissions phase on the French higher education platform Parcoursup, 126,652 applicants have not yet received an offer for the 2026/27 academic year. The official data published on Saturday also qualify the widespread portrayal that these are exclusively secondary-school graduates: the figures also include students changing courses and candidates attending school outside France.

A total of 908,974 people had confirmed at least one preference on Parcoursup. Of these, 745,602 received at least one admission offer. Another 36,720 candidates left the platform before receiving an offer. This leaves 126,652 applicants without an offer. The figure therefore describes the situation at the end of the main phase, rather than the final number of those without prospects for the autumn.

Among the 660,399 final-year secondary-school students, 576,749 received at least one offer. Among 206,038 students changing courses, the number was 152,351, while 16,502 of the 42,537 applicants attending school abroad received an offer. The official statistics explicitly distinguish between these groups because their routes of access and the study places available to them differ. Applicants undergoing professional reorientation are not included in the overview.

The regular phase ran from 2 June to 11 July 2026. Waiting lists from this phase will now be archived; in exceptional cases, however, places that become available may still be allocated to applicants on the lists. For candidates who have already been admitted, the main next step is administrative enrolment at their chosen university or specialised college.

For applicants without an offer, the supplementary admissions phase remains the crucial route. Until 8 September, they can submit new preferences for programmes that still have places available; the final offers are expected to be sent on 10 September. The procedure is also open to people who initially received only rejections from selective institutions or whose preferences were all on waiting lists during the main phase.

Since 1 July, candidates without an admission offer have also been able to contact the academic access commissions, known as CAES. These bodies, headed by rectors, review individual applications and are intended to help secure offers that are as close as possible to the applicant’s previous study plan and the remaining capacity. On 11 July, 6,547 applicants from the three statistical groups had requested such support.

The high remaining figure therefore points less to a uniform exclusion of secondary-school graduates than to the scale and heterogeneity of the process. For the young people concerned, however, the situation remains time-sensitive: only the supplementary phase, possible movement from waiting lists and the work of the CAES will show how many applicants will actually remain without a place in education by the start of the academic year.