The Extraordinary General Meeting of May 12, 2025 adopted a reform of the rules governing the allocation of boarding rooms (thurnage). The Room Allocation rules are updated on this site.
Nature of the reform adopted
It essentially consists of allowing students who register to modulate their stake (number of jokers played for the Roo) Allocation, according to the desired campus. This allows you to pay fewer jokers for a lower-quality room than you initially hoped for, if there are none available.
How it works
When you register, for each campus (Carré, Annexe/Erasme/NIR/Rataud, Montrouge A B C, Hypnos 1 and 2, Building L+Annexe studios), you declare whether you are prepared to pay 1, 2 or 3 jokers, or whether you are not interested in this campus. You will therefore potentially have a 1J registration, a 2J registration, AND a 3J registration. A registration corresponds to a list of desired campuses for a given number of jokers (1 registration ≡ 1 list). A single registration including all campuses is exactly equivalent to a TG registration according to the pre-reform rules, and is of course still permitted. At the same time, you can request to register as a pair or trio (details below).
Registrations are closed no more than 10 days before the evening of the Year Room Allocation, and then sorted by number of jokers, then trio>pair>alone, then number of years of housing, and finally by drawing lots, as was already the case. The rankings are then published no more than 4 days before the evening of the Year
Room Allocation. In this case, you will potentially be called several times (e.g. at the 3J call for your 3J listing, then at the 2J call for your 2J listing). When one of your lists is called, you can then choose a room from among the remaining ones, in one of the campuses you've placed in that list. You can also abandon a list at any time, with no effect on your other lists, and wait for a subsequent call for other campuses.
Example
Alice has 3J and wants a room in the carré or in Montrouge.
- Before the reform, Alice bets 3J to maximize her chances of getting a room in the carré. If at the time of her call there are no more rooms in the carré, she either abandons the TG or goes to Montrouge having paid 3J, whereas she could have had this room in Montrouge for only 1J. We think this is unsatisfactory.
- With the reform, Alice can bid 3J for the square only, and 1J for the other campuses. So, if she doesn't get a room in the carré, she'll be called later, with a good chance of getting a room in Montrouge, at a price she feels is fairer.
0J list
To avoid any risk of under-occupation of the boarding school, each student (and master's student, including for TG 2025) can also form a 0J registration, including all the campuses he or she wishes, independently of the campuses listed in the 1J, 2J, 3J registrations. Ranking follows the same rules as before, with priority given to students over masters students, then in ascending order of the number of years of housing. (article 11-1 Room Allocation Appendix)
Pairs and trios
You can share (at least one) jokers with one or two other people in order to live together in a room. To do so, please send an e-mail to dg[at]ens.fr when registration opens. In addition to the individual entries for each member of the duo or trio, a single additional joint list will then be entered before the ranking is published. This list includes all campuses. With an equal number of jokers, trios have priority over pairs, and pairs have priority over individuals. So as not to interfere with the thurnage process, you cannot form an individual entry above the group entry (pair or trio) to which you belong. (articles 13, 14, 15 Room Allocation Appendix)
Housing guarantee (International Selection and CROUS scholarship holders)
Students from the International Selection and CROUS scholarship holders are guaranteed housing if they register on a list at least 1J. If they register on a 2D or 3D list, they must certify in writing that they understand that this may entail renouncing their housing guarantee for the remainder of their ENS studies. This form must be signed before the end of registration. (article 17 Room Allocation Appendix)
Is there a risk of joker inflation with this reform?
No. Since the number of jokers is fixed for each campus, there will be no panic on TG evening, prompting students to pay a higher-than-usual number of jokers to “secure” a room. To get a rough estimate of the number of jokers to bet for a campus, we invite you to consult the results of previous years' Room Allocations. We would also like to remind you that as of September 2025, thurn fees will rise from €315/month to €465/month for non-CROUS scolarship holders, as well as a €50 annual cleaning fee.
What about master's students?
In order to guarantee full occupancy of ENS boarding facilities at the start of the 2025 school year, the Direction Générale des Services (DGS) and the Student-led Housing Committee (DG) have decided to allow master's students to participate in the Year Room Allocation with zero joker, in violation of article 15 of the Room Allocation Appendix. As master's students are in the “Other status” category for the Year Room Allocation, they are classified after students (in the sense of article 3 of the RI). If you have any suggestions for next year, please send us a postcard or e-mail (dg[at]ens.fr).