Student insecurity is spectacularly visible today and is an aspect of the long-term democratisation of higher education, and the extension of downward mobility in western societies. The data that is regularly published by observatories of student life (OVE) have documented the existence of this phenomenon. The financial, residential, familial, or migratory aspects of this insecurity vary depending on social categories. They throw into question public policies on higher education, youth, and the ways in which social and gender inequalities are addressed. The “formidable demand for general culture” identified 25 years ago perhaps remains the strongest and most current avenue to pursue in order to take up the challenge of this paradoxical insecurity.