1. Is this program taught in English?
+No. The entire curriculum runs in French, with DELF B2 minimum required and DALF C1 strongly preferred for clinical years.
The medical school in Lille is named after a former dean who was also the university's first president after it split into several different institutions in the 1970s. Medicine has been taught in this part of northern France for a lot longer than the name suggests. The story begins in Douai in 1570, a long time before Lille became the most important city in the region. In fact, the first formal training in surgery began in Lille in 1705, when a Royal School of Surgery opened. In 1805, it became a municipal school of medicine. In 1874, it became a real college of medicine and pharmacy, which was opened by Jules Ferry, the French education minister who is still known as the architect of France's modern public school system. That department from 1874 is really the direct institutional ancestor of what Lille has now.
They were not able to stay in one place. It was on Rue Jean-Bart for many years before moving to a new hospital campus on the eastern edge of Lille, which was built between 1951 and 1953. Another big move happened in 1996, when they moved into new buildings created by architect Gilles Neveux. President Jacques Chirac formally opened the new buildings in 1997. Today, the faculty is named after Henri Warembourg in honor of that modern building and the time it represents. It is located on the health campus at Loos, right next to CHU Lille.
The thing that really sets Lille apart today is its sheer size. The Faculté de Médecine Henri Warembourg has more than 12,000 students, making it the largest medical training and study unit in all of France. It is also the largest specific medical faculty in the country. It's part of UFR3S, the University of Lille's Health and Sports Sciences unit. UFR3S has more than 23,000 students studying all kinds of health-related subjects, making it the biggest health-sciences academic unit in France. This scale goes both ways for someone who wants to go to college. On the one hand, it means a huge group of peers, a lot of different specialties and study groups that students could join, and a hospital partner that is big enough to give students real-life experiences with rare and interesting medical cases. On the other hand, it also means a big group of people, which isn't very personal by French standards. It's more like going to a big state university than a small, close-knit medical school.
CHU Lille, the hospital partner of the faculty, is one of only five hospitals in France officially recognized as a national reference CHRU. This is an honor given only to the country's most important university hospital centers. It is often said that CHU Lille is one of the best hospitals in Europe when it comes to heart, oncology, neurology, and transplant medicine. The Institut Coeur Poumon is a national reference center for heart failure, cardiac transplants, and circulatory support devices. The faculty also does research and treatment in oncology through a partnership with the Centre Oscar Lambret, which is one of France's best regional cancer centers. In addition to rotating through CHU Lille, students in their later clinical years, especially those training as residents, also visit other hospitals in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, which is home to about six million people. This way, Lille's graduates get to experience a truly regional healthcare system instead of just one city's hospital.
Like all public medical schools in France, Lille's course structure is based on a model that is approved by the whole country, not one that was made in Lille. The same PASS or L.AS first-year selection process is used across the country to let people in. It is a very competitive process that uses test scores and class rank to decide who gets into medicine and not pharmacy, dentistry, midwifery, or other health fields that are part of the same selection umbrella. After this filter year, students move through DFGSM, which is basically years two and three. During this time, they learn more about basic medical science and spend more time in clinical settings. From year four onward, they fully transition into DFASM, where hospital rotations become the most important part of their weekly schedule. If a student decides to specialize, they must then join the Internat, which is France's residency system. This makes the whole process of becoming a fully independent, specialized doctor nine years or more from the first year of PASS.
Language is the most important thing for all foreign students, including those from India, just like it is for those in Montpellier and Lyon. There is no separate English-taught track in Lille's medical program; it is all taught in French. International applicants usually need to have at least DELF B2 level French, and DALF C1 level French is strongly desired by the time clinical training starts, since talking to real patients on the ward requires real fluency, not classroom French. It's important to take this one requirement as seriously as the academic part of any application because it actually keeps out a lot more potential international applicants than the academic part itself.
Most international students apply through Campus France. The selection process for the first-year PASS or L.AS is handled by Parcoursup, which is the same national site that French applicants use. Lille doesn't have a separate quota or reserved intake for Indian students or students of any other nationality. Once their initial application has been processed, all foreign applicants are put into the same national selection system.
When it comes to costs, Lille uses the same two-tier system that all public universities in France do. Students from outside the EU, EEA, or Switzerland who aren't excluded pay the national differential rate, which is €2,770 a year for the license cycle and €3,770 a year for the master's and doctoral cycles. In France as a whole, universities can choose not to charge this higher rate and instead charge the low national fee that all EU students pay, which has been around €170 to €380 a year in the past. There are policy changes that affect whether this exemption applies at Lille in a given year and to which students. Before committing to any cost plan, it is really worth getting written confirmation from the university's international office.
When compared to living in Montpellier or Lyon, living in Lille is a quite different experience. In the far north of France, it is located in close proximity to the border with Belgium. People there have a strong feeling of who they are in relation to the rest of the country, and the weather around there is really different from what you would find elsewhere. The cost of living in this location is somewhat lower than that of Paris or Lyon, and it is more comparable to that of Montpellier. There is a sizable private rental market in addition to the housing that is provided to students through CROUS. For those who are interested in studying medicine in French and would like to do it at the largest medical school in the country, which is supported by one of only five hospitals that are classified as reference hospitals on a national level, Lille is the best location to go. In comparison to other cities in France, it stands out due to its size and its cooperation with a hospital.
