{"id":633894,"date":"2026-10-18T00:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T00:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633894\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T00:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T00:36:11","slug":"kiwi-student-in-paris-back-to-laptop-learning-as-protests-shut-uni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633894\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi student in Paris back to laptop learning as protests shut uni"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New Zealand student in Paris is back to studying from his laptop, as nationwide protests over education and the cost of living have closed his university and its labs.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in the past few weeks<\/a> around France.<\/p>\n

The protest action began around a month ago as students at a school outside Paris rallied over teacher shortages. There have been large-scale student protests since then, with criticism over the use of force by police against young protesters. <\/p>\n

Now protests have shifted to include demonstrators with a range of concerns. <\/p>\n

These range from the cost of living and rising fuel prices to climate and inequality. <\/p>\n

Kiwi student Luke Geddes told 1News how his learning has been affected in Paris.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“They have blockaded our university and in fact in my former university as well, the armed police were called in as well to quite literally take down the protests and things like that,” he said.<\/p>\n

Geddes is studying towards a master’s degree in neuroscience at Universit\u00e9 Paris Cit\u00e9, after studying at the University of Otago. <\/p>\n

This year, most of his classes are taught in French, another of Geddes’ passions. <\/p>\n

He said his university peers experienced challenges with their education at high school, so they are supporting the education strikes. Geddes hasn’t participated. <\/p>\n

“It is a really, really emotive sort of movement and it really kind of speaks to the frustrations that a lot of French students are feeling at the moment.”<\/p>\n

“There is a frustration that there aren’t enough places at university. There are people having to go either overseas or not go to university at all because quite simply, they can’t get into university, and I think as well the general quality of education”.<\/p>\n

\"Protesters<\/p>\n

Protesters walks past a burning bin during a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students’ grievances, in Lyon (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Geddes said it’s been a return to uncertainty and learning from home on his laptop, as he experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

“It’s not easy… just trying to make the most of what I can.<\/p>\n

“All of the labs have been shut, all of the scientific labs and even professional researchers have been having to get special exemptions to go in and find ways to get into their labs to actually do their research as well, so this has been a really, really disruptive process.”<\/p>\n

Two of Geddes’ assessments have been postponed this week, but he feels the most for the researchers whose projects have been affected. <\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, we just don’t know what’s happening at this point in time, and it’s really, really difficult for teaching staff and things like that because this movement is evolving and it has continued to change day by day.”<\/p>\n

Geddes described being told his university would be open on Monday, and heading there.<\/p>\n

“There was a massive blockade in front of the university. Protesters, big signage and things like that.”<\/p>\n

\"Protesters<\/p>\n

Protesters attack a tourism office during a demonstration against rising living costs, joining students’ grievances, in Lyon (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Geddes said moving to France, he soon learnt to expect the unexpected with protests and strikes an inherent part of the culture. <\/p>\n

“French people really like to stick up for what they believe in, and they’re overtly more political than we are in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

“New Zealand, we are very, very reserved in the way that we look at things politically.<\/p>\n

Geddes said some French people are frustrated about a wide range of issues that have built up over time.<\/p>\n

“What French people are asking is actually for a government which doesn’t go with the status quo which actually continues to reflect the kind of will of the people and actually looks towards a kind of constructive future and new ideas in that sort of way.”<\/p>\n

Geddes said his education in France has been “very, very good” but one difference stands out from his experiences in Europe and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

“In the kind of Anglophone, English-speaking world … UK, Australia, New Zealand… we actually organise our universities a whole lot better, but in terms of actually the standard of research and the quality of education that I’m getting, it’s top class.”<\/p>\n

While the majority of protestors were peaceful, there has been violence, vandalism and arson from some demonstrators in the latest day of action in France. <\/p>\n

Police have fired tear gas and used water cannons in some areas, including at the main gathering in Paris at Place de la R\u00e9publique.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New Zealand student in Paris is back to studying from his laptop, as nationwide protests over education…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69,1745],"class_list":["post-633894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}