News & Views item - May 2007

 

 

French President Makes Ministry for Research and Higher Education a Cabinet Position... But. (May 26, 2007)

    The newly elected President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has assigned a full cabinet minister to Research and Higher Education rather than allowing it to remain in the junior ministry. That said it has been given to a career politician who's virtually unknown among scientists, thirty-nine year old Valérie Pécresse.

 

She has no scientific background, was an adviser to former president Jacques Chirac and a spokesperson for President Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement.

 

According to Science she, "will be charged with a reform of the university system that is expected to trigger protests".

 

Marco Chown Oved of the Associated Press reports that in fact the French universities may form the first test for the new French president -- students at the Tolbiac campus of the University of Paris have already taken part in a pre-emptive protest against the Sarkozy government.  And while its true that the Sorbonne, as all French universities in contrast to the Grandes Écoles*, costs next-to-nothing to attend, and admission is open to everyone who has finished high school, its facilities boast no cafeteria, no student newspaper, no varsity sports and no desk-side plugs for laptop users. A far cry from say the University of Helsinki.

 

Sorbonne president Jean-Robert Pitte told the Associated Press that the French system just produces dropouts. 45% of Sorbonne students do not complete their first year, and 55% do not earn a degree. "Without entrance standards, there is a 'selection-by-failure' that squanders resources and professors' time on students who 'have no real chance of success'".

 

Put simply French students complain about poor facilities and huge classes, but vehemently oppose changes which they see would be discriminating against those with potential who were late bloomers.

 

"It allows everyone to take their chances," Maxime Lonlas, president of the Sorbonne‘s largest student union told the AP, but Sorbonne president Pitte says the annual tuition fees of less than A$490 — a sum that is often waived — means there‘s no financial penalty for failure, and a "phantom student" phenomenon exists where as many as 10% of students on the rolls never see the inside of a lecture hall, having enrolled to get free health benefits and student discounts on everything from train travel to movie tickets.

 

In short there are strong, if short-sighted, reasons for protests against changing the system.

 

"We‘re the street-sweepers of the education system," Pitte told the AP, picking up all those who fail to gain entrance to the Grandes Écoles.

 

The Sorbonne's president has been a vocal critic of the French tertiary system and voiced his anger in his 2006 book Young People, They're Lying to You: Reconstructing the University.

 

And as for Valérie Pécresse? Science makes the observation, "...in January, she published a book entitled Being a Woman in Politics … It's Not That Easy!"

 

Julie Bishop's having a cakewalk compared to what probably lies ahead for the French Minister for Research and Higher Education.

 

Note: French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said this week that a bill on granting universities more autonomy would be presented to parliament in July, when schools are closed and potential protesters are on vacation.

 


The Grandes Écoles select 6% of post-secondary students, have tough entrance exams and charge tuition of up to A$8,200 a year, but offer small classes and graduate nearly all the country‘s business leaders and politicians.