Because of the public underfunding of universities, there is now in France a movement in favour of the implementation of the OECD recommendations: the introduction of tuition fees and student loans, which turn universities into monopolistic competitors on the students’ market. The first purpose of this working paper is to show, supported by foreign experience, that the undesirable results of this package of measures are such as to advise to rule it out. The second is to suggest - in order to save the french universities from a looming pauperization - another way to share costs between taxpayers and users which could both avoid student indebtedness and comply with the french principles of public service: accessibility, equality of treatment, transparency, continuity and flexibility.