I did a semester at a French uni as part of my degree. I was an Erasmus student so my experience would be pretty different to a home student’s, but I found it really difficult to meet any French students and despite trying at first I just ended up making friends with other international students and other Brits. Like other people have said, the French students tended to live with their parents so they didn’t go out at weekends or even in the evenings really, think I went to one social event with French students in the five months I was there and the rest of the time I spent going out with Erasmus students. It could be different for your son though if he’d be starting at the same time as everyone else and classed as a home student in a way.
It’s a very different kind of university experience - student unions and societies are a much bigger deal in the UK, for one thing. I joined the mountain sports clubs at my French uni and went on a couple of day trips, but there was no social side to the club at all even though it was one of the biggest (and only) clubs on campus. Universities in the UK do a much better job of integrating students and encouraging them to get involved in that sort of thing, which at least for me was really key to making friends and doing stuff that wasn’t work. It felt like being back at school in comparison to my UK uni experience.
It really depends on the sort of person your son is: he could have a really good time if he finds it really easy to make friends and can adapt to the differences in the university experience, but most people I know who studied abroad found it pretty challenging.
