France: University presidents asked to limit controversial political conferences after student's death

France's ministers for the interior and higher education and research have called on university presidents to strike a fair balance between “academic freedom and students' freedom of expression, assembly and information” on the one hand, and public order and safety on the other, following the violent death of a student on the sidelines of a political conference on 14/02/2026.

“The resurgence, within and around higher education institutions, of extremely serious disturbances of public order during events organised by student associations calls for increased vigilance on your part," Philippe Baptiste, Minister for Higher Education and Research, and Laurent Nunez, Minister of the Interior, wrote in a note published on 16/02/2026.

This note was in reaction to the death of Quentin Deranque, a French student who was killed in a fight that appeared to have started around a conference given by French far-left MEP Rima Hassan at a university in Lyon.

The ministers reminded university presidents that, if the law guarantees freedom of expression and assembly on an establishment's premises, it is…