Is "élèves" interchangeable with "étudiants" ?

Question

I am doing a writing challenge titled "its not my fault" where there was a translation required of "and my students are very creative"  My response of "et mes étudiants peuvent ..." had "étudiants" crossed out and replaced with "élèves". I would appreciate knowing the rationale for this please?

Accepted Answer

Hi Andrea,
The writing challenge "It's not my fault! (Ce n'est pas ma faute !)" refers specifically to secondary school students. I found an earlier forum thread that addresses the difference between élève and étudiant that you might find useful. It explains that étudiant is typically used in French to refer to someone who is at university, while élève (similar to the term pupil in British English) is more typically used to refer to someone who is still at pre-university stage schooling.
See https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/use-of-eleve-versus-etudiant-e
I hope this helps :)