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Planning for higher education in FranceOlive Wykes aa Senior Lecturer in Education , University of MelbournePublished online: 26 Jan 2010.

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7PLANNING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

IN FRANCE

by OLIVE WYKES

C'est le niveau de qualification fourni aujourd' hui a la jeunessequi donnera a I'economie de demain sa physionomie.

Charles de Gaulle

In April 1963 the Prime Minister of France, M. Pompidou,opened new port installations at Dunkirk as part of the establish-ment of a massive metallurgical industry in the region. Hereferred to the transformation of the shattered town of 1940into the flourishing industrial city of 1963 as a symbol of thetechnical and industrial resurgence of France in the post-waryears. This resurgence was the result of careful and long-rangeplanning of the national economy; France now had une economieplanifiee. "We are trying,' he said, 'to unite the advantages ofplanning with those of liberty and initiative. We wish to havea concerted economy, in which all the living forces of thecountry are associated.'1

France has been moving towards a planned education system(un enseignement planifie) as part of this planned economy. Theplanning was begun early in the post-war period, not only byseparate commissions and reports on education, which havebeen numerous, but by the inclusion of education at all levelsin general long-range economic planning on a national scale.A series of four-year or five-year plans has been drawn up bypermanent commissions. The first, the so-called Monnet Plan,which relied heavily on Marshall Aid, concentrated mainly onbasic industries, but all subsequent plans included nationalactivities such as housing, health and education. A permanentcommission for the Planning of Schools, Universities and Sport(Commission de YEquipement Scolaire, Universitaire et Sportif)

1 Le Monde, 27 April 1965, p. 19.

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252 Melbourne Studies in Education 1964

was established in 1951 under the chairmanship of a state coun-sellor, M. Le Gorgeu. Another committee, the Rueff-ArmandCommittee, issued a report in 1960 on 'Obstacles to the Expan-sion of the French Economy' and devoted a section of its de-liberations and conclusions to higher education.2 In the pub-lished material of the Fourth Plan 1962-1965, the section dealingwith education runs to 436 pages.

Thus France began soon after the war to integrate educationand the economy and to set targets in education, accepting thefact that today's education will shape tomorrow's economy andthat investments in education — intellectual investments, asFrenchmen say — will be the most profitable of French invest-ments in the future. For thirteen years, higher education, likeall levels of education, has been carefully planned on a nationalscale. The targets of each plan are never reached. By the endof 1963, for example, only 43 per cent of the finance requiredfor the Fourth Plan had been made available; education hadsuffered from the freezing of funds.3 In spite of this, becauseof the planning, France knows what kind of national system ofhigher education she is trying to achieve. Since planning de-pends on prediction and programming, it has been accompaniedby the strengthening of the statistical, research and programmesections of the Ministry of Education, of the work of the BureauUniversitaire de Statistiques, with its monthly publication of thejournal Informations Statistiques* of the work of the NationalInstitute of Demography, formerly under the direction of M.Alfred Sauvy, now under the direction of M. Jean Bourgeois-Pichat, with its publication of the journal Population, and ofthe work of the National Institute of Statistics and Economics.The text of a series of lectures on Planification et Enseignement,given in Paris in 1963, was recently published and revealsFrench preoccupation with the aims, methods and results ofsystematic planning.3

Fears have very properly been expressed that the great andglorious humanist tradition of France, now 750 years old, will be

2 J. Guilhem, 'La Rentrée des facultés' in L'Education Nationale, 6October 1960, p.8.

3 Journal Officiel — Débats Parlementaires Assemblée 'Nationale, Année1963-1964, No. 120 AN, 7 November 1963, p. 6550.

4 Two recent numbers of Informations Statistiques September-October1962 and December 1963 were devoted to higher education.

5 Institut Pédagogique National, Planification et Enseignement (Paris,1963).

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Planning for Higher Education in France 253

destroyed. This is the country which has long prided itself onits culture generate, on individual and institutional liberty andinitiative. If these should be subordinated to the ephemeraleconomic and industrial needs of the country and to the whimsof the technocrats, scholars and students would become cogsin the dread process of la manpowerisation. The Fourth Re-public was often dubbed The Republic of the Technocrats, andthe power of the technocrats was all the greater because ofministerial instability. Planning has been intensified during theFifth Republic, and ministerial stability has not been notable,especially in education. When he became Minister of Educa-tion in 1963, M. Fouchet was the seventh since De Gaulle be-came President! The cry has gone up from the Societe desAgreges, from the old pupils' associations of lycees and fromthe Academie Frangaise, that France must not produce onlyan 'economic and a space elite'.6

However, it is the humanist tradition of the secondary schoolthat has been most zealously guarded, and there has beensurprisingly little hostility to the principle of the rationalizationof the resources of higher education, perhaps because it isrealized that the economic argument is wont to be heeded bypoliticians. As a Minister of Education, M. Louis Joxe, saidreassuringly in 1960: I n an expanding economy it is impossiblenot to plan. This does not mean that we must only plan educa-tion that is directly usable.'7 Most French educationists wouldagree with Karmel when he writes:

I do not hold that the main virtue of education reposes in itseconomic consequences. Quite the reverse . . . We should,however, be foolish to ignore the beneficial effects of educa-tion on material progress, from fear of being defiled. Weshould be foolish to ignore it, because material progress itselfmay interact to improve the educational environment, andbecause no sensible advocate discards a valid argument whichmay convince.8

It is evident that if a nation wishes to have a concerted systemof higher education, in which all the living forces of the nationare associated, some individual and institutional liberties and

6 See for example Le Monde, 11 March 1962, p. 13; 12 March 1962,p. 10; 17 April 1962, p. 15.

7 M. Joxe in the Senate, 10 May 1960.8 P. H. Karmel, Some Economic Aspects of Education (Melbourne,

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2J4 Melbourne Studies in Education 1964

initiatives must be curtailed. This problem is discussed in theRobbins Report, where it is recognized that to date there isno consciously co-ordinated system of higher education inGreat Britain. But it is maintained that:

Higher education is so obviously and rightly of great publicconcern, and so large a proportion of its finance is providedin one way or another from the public purse, that it is difficultto defend the continued absence of co-ordinating principlesand of a general conception of objectives.9

Nevertheless, care is taken to distinguish between control ofall activities from the centre and the inspiration of decentralizedinitiative by common principles. A nice distinction, whichreads well! The fact remains that it is difficult to reconcilethe concept of a national and co-ordinated system with freedomand initiative, and it would seem that some conflict will beinevitable as Britain takes steps to plan higher education inthe light of national needs and resources according to the re-commendations of the Robbins Report. In Australia the firststeps towards national planning were taken by the establishmentof the Murray Committee, whose terms of reference were 'toindicate ways in which the universities might be organized soas to ensure that their long-term pattern of development is inthe best interests of the nation'.10 That this national organiza-tion has been accompanied by greater and increasing directionfrom the centre is evident from a comparison of the first andsecond reports of the Australian Universities Commission. Simi-larly, the Congress of the United States, in passing and thenextending aid to universities and colleges, first by the NationalDefence in Education Act of 1958, then by the College Aid Billin December 1963, was both extending educational opportunitiesto more students and meeting national needs in science, mathe-matics, engineering and modern foreign languages. At the sametime, by making grants only for specific purposes, it was influ-encing the development of independent institutions of highereducation.

The world trend, thus, is towards increased national direction9 Committee on Higher Education, Higher Education — Report of the

Committee appointed by the Prime Minister under the Chairmanship ofLord Robbins 1961-1963 (London, 1963), pp. 4-5, hereinafter calledthe Robbins Report.

10 Committee on Australian Universities (Sir Keith Murray, Chairman),Report, Canberra 1957, p. 5.

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Planning for Higher Education in France 255

of higher education. Such national planning is more systematicin France, more integrated with estimated economic needs thanin other liberal democracies. It is, of course, much easier toexecute there. The whole system of administration and educa-tion is highly centralized, the universities are state universities,there is a Director and an Advisory Council and Division ofHigher Education within the Ministry of Education, the greatbulk of the finance comes from the Ministry, there are no com-plications arising from the existence of states within a federationwhich constitutionally and traditionally control education, noprivate institutions which may award their own degrees, no longtradition of institutional autonomy. It may be useful, never-theless, to examine the effects of national planning on highereducation in France. Post-war developments have been char-acterized by a spectacular expansion, by decentralization anddiversification accompanied by specialization and the rationaliza-tion of resources. Within the framework of national directionthere has been an enthusiasm for experiment and innovationnot witnessed before, the opening of higher education to agreater proportion of the country's youth, and the steady im-provement of student services.

Higher education in France (enseignement superieur) in-cludes universities composed of faculties and institutes, grandesecoles, and separate and highly specialized institutes. Primaryteachers' colleges (ecoles normales) were not traditionally classedas tertiary establishments, nor has any attempt been made toraise them to this level. In 1945 there were sixteen universitiesin mainland France, each situated in an Academy capital. Entrywas by passing the baccalaureat, and since secondary educationwas a general education, embracing subjects drawn from thehumanities, sciences and social sciences throughout the seven yearcourse, specialization was begun immediately at the university.There was, for example, no university course corresponding tothe Australian pass arts course. There were four faculties only— Arts, Science, Law, Medicine and Pharmacy. Not all universi-ties had all four faculties. The law course included subjectssuch as political science, economics and administration, and wastaken by many students not intending to proceed to a careerin law. In addition, there were Catholic faculties, notably thoseof Paris and Lyons, which conducted their own courses, butwhose students were obliged to take the university examina-tions, since the state held the monopoly of degrees. Side byD

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side with the universities were the grandes ecoles, the greatschools. After passing, the baccalaureat candidates for admis-sion to these schools remained in certain selected secondaryschools to enter the classes preparatoires, where they preparedover two years for a competitive examination for entry to thegrandes ecoles. These schools offered specialized training insuch fields as engineering, applied science, agriculture, com-merce. They educated an elite for certain professions andespecially for the senior civil service. Their prestige was high,in many cases higher than that of the universities. The EcolePolytechnique trained a crack corps of engineers and armyofficers, the Ecole Normale Superieure prepared specialistsecondary and university teachers, the Institut des SciencesPolitiques was the nursery of the career diplomats. Lastly,highly specialized institutes were devoted to research and thetranquil study of renowned scholars. The College de France,for example, offered no fixed courses but gave free teaching ofa high standard to an interested public, while offering its scholarsample time to pursue their own research.

No detailed studies of the social composition of the institutionsof higher education were made in the pre-war years. It isgenerally held that, on the whole, they were the preserve of themiddle classes. In particular, the grandes ecoles, because of theprolonged period of study that was necessary before entry, werethe monopoly of the middle classes, and their graduates becamethe leaders of industry, management and the civil service.11

Pre-war higher education, then, was characterized by its re-stricted clientele, and the dispersion throughout France of uni-versities, but not of grandes ecoles or separate specialized in-stitutes, which were situated mainly in Paris, or indeed ofstudents, since Paris was the great magnet. There was a certainmeasure of diversification and specialization through the insti-tutes attached to universities, but there was no rationalizationof resources, no planned national control, no deliberate attemptto serve the economic needs of the nation — and little experi-mentation and change.

Let us look first at the post-war explosion in higher education.The increase in numbers of students, staff and institutions wasremarkable in the post-war period even before 1963, when thepost-war babies began to enter the universities. In 1949 there

11 D. Graneck, The European Executive (New York, 1962), pp. 38-45,113-15.

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Planning for Higher Education in France 257

were 131,569 university students; in 1960 there were 214,672;in 1963 there were 330,000 in higher education, including292,820 in universities. The prediction for 1970, when the effectof the post-war rise in birth rate will be' most strongly felt, is455,000 in the universities, and 650,000 in higher education.12

New university posts are being created at the rate of 2,000 eachyear.13 Distribution of students among the universities is stillvery uneven. In 1962 the largest university was Paris, with77,796 students; the next largest was Aix, with 15,000; thesmallest was Besancon, with 2,217. The proportion of studentsliving in the Paris area is, however, steadily diminishing. In1955 42 per cent were concentrated there, in 1959 36 per cent,for 1970 the prediction is 30 per cent. To expedite the dispersalof students away from the Paris area the decision was made in1960 to spend 70 per cent of finance available for universitiesoutside Paris.14 Likewise no new grandes ecoles were estab-lished in Paris after 1957 and some existing ones were relocated.Apart from state institutions, there were 13,000 students in theprivate faculties in 1960, chiefly in the Catholic Institute of Paris,and the Catholic faculties of Lille, Lyons and Rennes.

Not only the numbers but also the proportion of students inhigher education rose in spectacular fashion. The RobbinsReport estimates that in 1960 there were approximately forty-four full-time degree students per 10,000 population in France,compared with twenty in Britain, and the French targets for thefuture were also much higher than those in Britain.13 Usinganother means of comparison, Karmel has shown the.compara-tive enrolment ratios of full-time students in later secondary andtertiary education by age-groups in 1958.16

Full-Time Students in Education15-19 years 20-24 years

per cent per centFrance 30-8 3-8Australia 20-3 1-9United Kingdom 16-8 2-4

12 Informations Statistiques, September-October 1962.13 M. Foucjiet in a television programme in March 1964, reported in

Le Monde, 4 March 1964, p. 8.14 The Minister of Education, M. Louis Joxe, in the Senate, 10 May 1960.15 Robbins Report, p. 41.10 Comparative statistics such as these must always be treated with

caution, even when compiled by the best statistical services. At best theycan be only a rough guide, since different countries may determine theirstatistics by different means. This table is taken from Karmel, op. cit., p .13.D

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The favourable French figures derive from a number of fac-tors, only three of which will be mentioned here. There is noimposition of a quota in France, and all who pass the bacca-laureat may enter a university, no matter whether adequatebuildings, staff and equipment are available. The principle ofplein acces is uncontested. Then the proportion of the agegroup continuing full-time in secondary education, on whichhigher education draws, is obviously much higher than in Aus-tralia or the United Kingdom. Lastly, fees in French universi-ties are kept very low, the maximum paid by a student in 1964being approximately £50 per annum. It should be notedthough, again according to the Robbins Report, that the pro-portion of the age group completing university education islower in France than in Great Britain — 3 per cent, comparedwith 5-6 per cent.17 No detailed studies of student wastage havebeen made in France, but a glance at the staff-student ratio —1:8 in Great Britain, 1:30 in France — offers a partial explanationof the rate of student failure, and this, taken together with thestrict selection procedure in Great Britain and the appallingshortages of library, laboratory and lecture-room space in atleast some French universities, provides a working hypothesis forthe marked difference.18 Those interested in the education ofgirls might note that the proportion of women entering full-timedegree courses in France is 40 per cent, compared with 28 percent in Great Britain.19 France obviously makes more efficientuse of its womanpower!

The distribution of students among faculties has undergone aradical change. There has been a marked swing to Science anda marked decrease, both absolutely and proportionately in Law.There has also been a proportionate increase in Arts, togetherwith a proportionate decrease in Medicine and Pharmacy.20

France, in common with other highly developed countries,has thus undergone a crisis in growth in higher education inthe post-war years, and growth has inevitably meant meta-morphosis. One may very well ask to what extent the meta-

17 Robbins Report, p. 43.18 These shortages are highlighted in the press at the beginning of each

university year and in the parliamentary debate on the annual educationbudget. See, for example, Le Monde, 9 October 1963, 2 November1963, and Journal Officiel, loc. cit., pp. 6546-682.

19 Robbins Report, p. 43.20 The following table is taken from Informations Statistiques,

September-October 1962.

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Planning for Higher Education in France

Enrolments by Faculty in French Universities1949 1960

.Number of % of Number of % ofStudents total Students total

Law 37,342 28-38 33,634 16-54

Science 24,555 18-66 68,062 33-47

Arts 34,597 26-30 62,395 30-68

Medicineand

Pharmacy

28,200

6,875

21

5

•43

•23

30,587

8,697

15

4

•04

•28

morphosis was deliberately planned, to what extent it wasspontaneous. Politicians in France do not make extravagantclaims for their planning. The Minister of Finance, speakingon the progress of the Fourth Plan, struck a cautious note: 'Jen'ai d'ailleurs pas dit que le Plan soit seul responsable de I'ex-pansion frangaise mais il tend a lux donner sa pleine efficacite.'21

There is no doubt, however, that governmental policy aimed atbringing higher education within the reach of more people byprogressive decentralization, for this was believed to be the onlyway that the democratization of higher education could beachieved.22 Existing universities were expanded, and the offer-ing of more places in higher education in widely scattered areaswas planned by the establishment of new universities, new in-stitutions of higher education called variously faculties, colleges,schools or institutes, and new specialized research institutes.Scientific institutions were particularly favoured and diversifica-tion was fostered.

Universities had been traditionally linked with Academies,and the number and boundaries of the sixteen Academies in1959 had not been altered for a century. The creation* of thethree new Academies of Nantes, Reims and Orleans in 1961 wasthe first step taken towards the creation of three new universi-ties, and Amiens, Rouen and Limoges have been named as thecentres of further Academies in 1964 and 1965.M

Eleven new National Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy wereestablished, either in a university town which formerly had no

21 Le Monde, 3 July 1963, p. 14.22 M. Pompidou in the d e b a t e on the education budge t in the Nat ional

Assembly, 22 June 196-3.23 M. Fouchet , the Minister of Educat ion , in Journal Officiel, loc. cit . ,

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260 Melbourne Studies in Education 1964.

such faculty, for example Besangon, or in a non-university townbut attached to an existing university, for example, Angers,which is attached to Rennes. Three new science faculties wereestablished as the nuclei of new universities, while thirteen newScientific Colleges and nine Literary Institutes giving one ortwo years teaching in science or arts have been designated asembryonic faculties. Governmental policy has been explicitlystated. Faculties will develop into universities and colleges andinstitutes into faculties. The creation of sixteen new scientificinstitutions was a deliberate attempt to produce more scientistsurgently needed in teaching and industry.

The policy of dispersion has not been accepted without criti-cism. The Union of Higher Education (Syndicat de VEnseigne-ment Superieur) has protested against an excessive decentraliza-tion of university colleges and claims that only if they haveadequate libraries and laboratories and are situated near auniversity where the staff can pursue research should they bepermitted.24 But during the twelve hour long debate on theeducation budget in November 1963 only one lone voice, thatof an independent deputy, was raised against the policy of estab-lishing an isolated faculty or college. This deputy, M. JeanRoger, stressed the unity of higher education and uttered aneloquent plea for the creation of full universities, 'car il y ainterdependence des sujets traites et des connaissances'.2* Allother speakers of all parties praised the dispersion because itbrought higher education to the people.

The Scientific and Medical Research Complex at Kronen-burg ' in Strasbourg is an example of a new specialized andseparate institution. It contains three institutes: a nuclear re-search institute is well established, a bioclimatic research in-stitute, started in 1963, is unique in the world, and a neuro-chemical institute, planned for 1965, will be the first of its kindin Europe. The Higher Institute of Scientific Studies at Bures-sur-Yvette has been likened to the Institute of Advanced Studiesat Princeton. In a beautiful property in the valley of Chevreusenear Paris research workers and scholars exchange ideas withdistinguished visitors — Robert Oppenheimer or Andre Weil orGrothendieck or Lehman or Jost. In the five years since itsestablishment fifteen publications on mathematics have comeforth from the section devoted to fundamental research in

24 Le Monde, 30 January 1964, p. 8.25 Journal Officiel, loc. cit., p. 6566.

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Planning for Higher Education in France 261

mathematics, and two sections devoted to theoretical physicsand the methodology of social sciences are shortly to be created.

Finally, the decentralization of certain campuses, notablythat of Paris, has been proceeding apace. Not that it was evercorrect to speak of a Paris campus, for the buildings were alwaysscattered in the Latin Quarter. But now the University of Parisis moving further afield. A twenty year old struggle betweenthe government and the Paris Municipal Council has at lastresulted in the resumption of the old wine market — La Halleaux Vins — for another science faculty. A second faculty of artshas been started in the suburb of Nanterre, and yet anotherscience faculty has begun at Orsay, in an estate in a rural set-ting only thirty minutes journey from the Latin Quarter. Thesite was chosen in 1955. In 1957 the first building, for nuclearphysics, was finished, followed by others, a student restaurant,the establishment of what will be the biggest scientific libraryin France, halls of residence and sports grounds. By 1961 therewere 2,500 students, and 200 full-time research workers in thenuclear physics centre. The prediction for 1966 is 10,000.Students initially disliked travelling away from the centre ofuniversity life, and the Students' Union complains from time totime about the disintegration of the University of Paris intothe suburbs. It was feared that the suburban faculties wouldbecome sub-standard Sorbonnes. But it has been shown thatif special facilities are provided, as at Orsay, students and staffwill move to them.

It was known that, while it was difficult to attract Parisianstudents to the suburbs, it would be even more difficult to buildup numbers in remote provincial universities and other institu-tions. Therefore the development of specialties was deliberatelyfostered. Besancon, a university that had never flourishednumerically, now has the best-equipped linguistic institute inFrance, complete with language laboratories and facilities forresearch into structural linguistics. It offers, as well, short andintensive language courses for foreigners. Montpellier has estab-lished Institutes of Biology, Industrial Pharmacy and BusinessAdministration. Special Centres of Renaissance Studies havebeen established at Tours, Mediaeval Studies at Nice, ReligiousStudies at Strasbourg, Political Science at Nice. A new methodof recruiting was tried out in a new type of grande ecole. TheNational Institute of Applied Science at Lyons admits straightfrom the lijcees those who hold the baccalaureat. In 1962 500D

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students, including 100 girls, were chosen on the basis of schoolrecord, the results of the baccalaureat and an interview. Theschool prepares engineers in a four year course, and taps socialclasses which did not formerly gain entry to the grandes ecoles.

The development of new institutions has been accompaniedby the development of new courses and degrees. The Facultyof Law has been transformed into the Faculty of Law andEconomics and the Faculty of Arts into the Faculty of Arts andSocial Sciences. There are new degrees awarded for study inpsychology, sociology, history of art, archaeology, and economics.A new doctorate, le doctorat du troisieme cycle, different innature and level from the older doctorat d'etat, encourages re-search, particularly in science and in teams of workers. Adoctorate of applied science is available for engineers, and someuniversities have instituted applied science first degrees. Tech-nology has been brought within the fold of the university.Students at the Ecole Normale Superieure may choose to entera research rather than a teaching career and are permitted totake a doctorat instead of the agregation.

In 1945 the National Centre of Scientific Research (CentreNational de la Recherche Scientifique) was established to de-velop, guide and co-ordinate scientific research of all kinds andto present an annual report to the government. No distinctionwas made between pure and applied science, and, later, researchinto the social sciences and language and literature was begun.The Centre now controls ninety-six groups of laboratories andits budget was multiplied 145 times between 1945-60 until now1*4 per cent of the national revenue is devoted to scientific re-search.28 The Atomic Energy Commission, established in 1945,now controls seven atomic centres at Saclay, Le Bouchet, Fon-tenay-aux-Roses, Grenoble, Marcoule, Pierrelatte and Cada-rache. The recently appointed Committee of Space Educationhas designated Toulouse as a 'space town', the centre of spaceresearch, and is encouraging good students to undertake spaceresearch by means of scholarships.27 This new emphasis onscientific research is undoubtedly contributing to the technologi-cal transformation of France.

New teaching methods go hand in hand with new activities.Experiments and innovations have been so numerous that onlya very limited selection can be made here. A new category of

26 Le Monde, 1 November 1963, p. 7.27 Le Monde, 31 October 1963, p. 11.D

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university staff, that of tutors or demonstrators (maîtres-assist-ants) was created to encourage teaching in small groups. Thereare not sufficient numbers of them, but a start has been madein breaking the stranglehold which ex cathedra teaching hashad in French universities for centuries. The new tutors areused especially in the année propédeutique, the preparatory ortransition year instituted in 1949 following the recommendationof the Langevin-Wallon report.2 ' After completing the bacca-lauréat students no longer plunge straight into the struggle forthe specialized certificates leading to the licence. Instead theyundertake a general year of studies, either literary, scientific,legal or medical. In Pharmacy, students undertake six monthspractical work in the field and six months general theoreticalpreparation in the university. The propédeutique year is de-voted to the perfection of knowledge already obtained, to in-dividual study, to an initiation into university life and methodsof teaching. The année propédeutique is also often taken byprimary school teachers as a further qualification. The failurerate is high — in the literary propédeutique 50 per cent only passin modern studies, 67 per cent in classics.29 It is therefore some-times called a sieve, in that it keeps a number of candidates fromentering higher education, but it is not a good sieve becausestudents who pass fail in large numbers in subsequent years.Little research on the merits and defects of the année propé-deutique has been done. University staff tend to blame theschools for their superficial preparation; schools blame the uni-versities for their poor teaching. A familiar cry! Recently thesuggestion has been recurring that two years' general prepara-tion is necessary.

Radio and television have been summoned to help in the crisisof growth in the universities. Educational television has beenused well and extensively in the schools since 1954, chiefly forthe purpose of enriching the curriculum. In April 1963 aworking group set up by the Prime Minister to study the useof audio-visual methods of teaching in both schools and univer-sities reported on what had already been achieved and maderecommendations for the future.30 The decision was taken touse radio and television not only for enrichment but also for

28 Ministry of Educat ion, La Réforme de l'Enseignement (Paris , 1 9 4 7 ) .January 1962, p . 4 .

29 P . Malrieu, 'La Propédeut ique littéraire' in L'Education Nationale, 1830 Le Monde, 2 April 1963, p. 10; 3 April 1963, p. 9.D

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264 Alelboiime Studies in Education 1964

direct teaching in both schools and universities. Ten milh'onfrancs were granted immediately to carry out the recommenda-tions and by the beginning of the school year 1963-4 radio andtelevision were being used in the following additional ways.They are used to develop the external studies departments ofsome universities. The University of Grenoble, for example,gives regular radio broadcasts to external students taking thepropédeutique in science in order to supplement correspondencetuition. All external students in addition come in for four weeks'residence at different times of the year, and use is made of theweekly Thursday holiday for extra tuition to primary schoolteachers. Television and radio combined are used for directteaching from the Arts Faculties of Nancy and Strasbourg —twenty half-hour programmes. The Law Faculty of Paris givesadditional help in the evening by radio, while the ScienceFaculty of Paris makes use of a special channel for a télévisionpropédeutique in mathematics and physics. Students meetunder supervision at six centres in Paris for this tuition, and theprogrammes are followed by discussion. Such teaching is tobe greatly extended in the future.

Since 1957 the National School of Metallurgy and Mines hasbeen following new methods of teaching and courses of study.31

The aim is to encourage a team or group spirit and preparestudents for adaptation and change. There are no ex cathedralectures. The lecturer distributes in advance a full text of lec-tures to students. When the students have read the text, theymeet together with the lecturer and tutors to hear the lecturerdevelop arguments, or stress and amplify important points. Thelecturer also draws attention to further reading to be done.The students then divide into groups, each under a tutor, fordiscussion and written exercises. There is continuous assess-ment of the students' work, and one group project per year isundertaken. Economics, accountancy and foreign languages arestudied — the latter in small groups and in the language labora-tory. Great emphasis is placed on the ability to speak and writegood French. Each student makes an oral report, summarizesan article and discusses it, carries out an investigation and giveshis conclusions, and leads a discussion. All oral discussionis put on tape and students listen to what they have said. Asubject called the Organization of Work and Human Relations

31 L'Ecole nationale supérieure de la métallurgie et de l'industrie desMines de Nancy' in L'Education Nationale, 3 November 1960, p. 5.D

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Planning for Higher Education in France 265

is taken, and during their periods of work on the job, the stud-ents live in the home of a workman, a foreman and an executivein order to understand more sympathetically the men with whomthey will one day be working.

In spite of all the post-war efforts, recent studies of the socialcomposition of the universities show that while the childrenof the middle classes are proportionately over-represented, thoseof the working classes are under-represented. When Robertde Sorbon, who had himself suffered from poverty as a student,founded the Sorbonne College in 1253, he provided it for 'lacommunaute des pauvres maitres et etudiants en thiologie.Throughout the centuries there have always been some oppor-tunities for really brilliant poor students to win their waythrough to the university. But the following table, based on1959 enrolment figures shows that the democratization of highereducation has just begun.32

Social Composition of French Universities 1959Occupationof Father

FannerAgricultural LabourerOwner of a businessProfessional and executiveCadre mover?3

Clerical WorkerIndustrial WorkerMunicipal EmployeeLiving on incomeOther

Proportion of TotalUniversity Population

5-7 per cent0-5

18-229-418-88-45-50-96-66 0

100-0

Thus 50 per cent of the students of France are the childrenof the owner, professional, executive and private income class.Moreover certain faculties recruit even more lightly from thelower classes than the universities as a whole. In medicine only2*4 per cent of students are the sons of industrial workers, inpharmacy only 1*6 per cent.3* Nevertheless the proportion ofchildren from certain classes entering the universities is steadilyincreasing. The proportion of the children of clerical workers

32 Informations Statistiques, September-October 1962.33 It is difficult to translate this category; it means literally 'middle

rank', and includes primary school teachers, postmasters and foremenin industry.

34 Informations Statistiques, September-October 1962.

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266 Melbourne Studies in Education 1064

entering the universities in 1945 was 13 per cent, industrialworkers 2 per cent, skilled workers 4 per cent. By 1959 theproportions had risen to 19 per cent, 3 per cent and 12 per centrespectively.35 There has been a corresponding decrease in theproportion of children of professional and business executives.Since 1945 many attempts have been made to democratizesecondary and higher education in France, for the two levelsof education are inseparable for this purpose. A series of re-forms has been effected in secondary education since 1945: theabolition of fees, the establishment of different kinds of second-ary schools, ease of transfer from one land of school to another,the abolition of a formal entrance examination to the lycees, afour year period of observation and orientation in all secondaryschools from 1964, the raising of the school leaving age to sixteen(from 1967), the award of living allowances at the secondarylevel, free books for all students to the age of sixteen from 1965— and so the catalogue goes on. France is far from achievingthe ideal of TegalitS des chances in secondary and higher educa-tion, even granted it is achievable, but is steadily moving to-wards a greater measure of equality of educational opportunity.

Adult matriculation was introduced in 1955 and a steadilyincreasing trickle of students has been recruited in this way.Deliberate attempts are made to recapture lost talent. Eachuniversity now has a Committee, in some cases an Institute ofAdult Education, while all universities have an Institut de laPromotion Superieure du Travail, whose task is to recruit adultstudents from the working classes. Students enrolled in theseinstitutes numbered 20,000 in 1959. One of these institutes atToulouse now has 912 students and hopes ultimately to reach5,000.36 It prepares for adult matriculation or a special entryexamination to the Faculty of Science. Some candidates possess-ing only a primary school certificate have been admitted to theuniversity after two years preparatory study. Already 182students have obtained a degree. At Grenoble the Dean of theFaculty of Science is in charge of the Institute, which concen-trates on science and engineering. It provides courses by corre-spondence and television, lectures on Saturday and Sunday andpractical work every evening. Attached to the Faculty of Lawof Lille is an Education Centre for Workers.37 Scholarships are

35 Ibid. 36 Le Monde, 7 February 1964, p. 21.37 M. Pommerolle, 'L'Université de Lille' in L'Education Nationale, 5

May 1960.

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Planning for Higher Education in France 267

available in all such institutes and centres, but the fall-out isgreat and almost half the students fail to maintain the necessarypace. The attempt to recuperate submerged talent is recog-nized as a palliative, and it is realized that it is much more effici-ent, as well as more just, to make every effort to keep talentedchildren at school so that they can enter higher education in thenormal way.

Simultaneous with the effort to widen the social compositionof the university population is the effort to bring the universitiesinto close touch with representative cross-sections of the popula-tion. The University of Lille is closely linked with the economicdevelopment of the north of France through its Rector, who ischairman of the Committee for the Economic Development ofthe region.38 The Institute of Social Sciences at Grenoble con-ducts regular residential seminars for union officials and farmers.All expenses of the participants are paid, and staff and studentsjoin in the discussions.

Finally during the post-war years there has been a determinedeffort to improve the living conditions of students. New citesuniversitaires, halls of residence, pavilions, villages and govern-ment habitations de loyer modere (Housing Commission dwell-ings ) are being built. In 1964 it was estimated that 18 per centof French students were provided with officially sponsoredaccommodation and the target for 1967 is 20 per cent. In 196333 million meals in government subsidized student restaurantswere served at a cost of approximately 2/6A.39 The number ofmeals has been multiplied sixfold since 1946. Special diets forsick students are prepared. One sixth of students in highereducation receive a state scholarship ranging in value from £85Ato £340A. Various attempts have been made to improve studenthealth through the provision of social service benefits, medicalattention and the provision of physical education and sportingfacilities. All students under twenty-six years of age receivespecial medical, maternity and accident benefits. Each univer-sity has a medical centre, and some have a student hospital.There are several student sanatoria and convalescent homesthroughout France. The University of Lille requires all stud-ents to attend twenty sessions of physical education or sport eachyear before permission is granted to sit for examinations. Situ-ated at the southern end of the Boulevard St Michel in Paris,rises a great new 'glass-house' — the University Student Centre

38 Ibid. 39 Le Monde, 3 March 1964, p. 10.

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268 Melbourne Studies in Education ig64

of Bullier. Here is a new concept of student community life —common rooms, restaurants, a gymnasium, swimming pool andtraining rooms for non-residents. There are 250 bedroom-studies for postgraduate students and preference is given tooutstanding sportsmen. The University of Paris has come along way from the medieval community of scholars.

And so the description of changes and developments in highereducation in France could go on indefinitely. In his televisionappearance in March 1964 the Minister of Education concludedan impressive list of achievements by highlighting the increase inthe budget for higher education and research between 1963 and1964 from 88 to 111 milliards of francs.40 But much remains tobe done. Student and staff dissatisfaction with shortages ofspace, teachers, equipment, residences and restaurants has in-tensified, and strikes and processions of protest are frequent.Two committees of reform and enquiry into higher educationwere set up in 1962 and 1963. One, the so-called BoullocheCommittee, completed its report on the relationship between theuniversities and the grandes ecoles early in 1964. It advised theamalgamation of the classes prSparatoires and the prope-deutiques in special pre-university institutes and a differentmethod of recruitment to the grandes ecoles based on interviewand record as well as examination.41 The second, a ministerialCommittee on the Reform of Higher Education, is examining thestructure and teaching methods of higher education. Since itis composed of academics and industrialists noted for their de-sire for reform further changes are likely. Just as it is difficultto estimate the extent to which the economic resurgence ofFrance is due to national planning — industrial production hastripled, agricultural production has doubled since the war42 —so it is equally difficult to estimate which achievements in highereducation result from deliberate governmental policy and whichhave arisen spontaneously because of changing social and eco-nomic conditions. The two go hand in hand.

The old myth that central control of education necessarilyinhibits change and progress has been exploded in France. Sincethe end of the war Church and state have reached a major settle-ment on the question of private education. The central adminis-trative apparatus of the Ministry of Education has been re-

40 Le Monde, 4 March 1964, p. 8.41 Le Monde, 23 January 1964, p. 6.42 Le Monde, 30 July 1963, p. 2.

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Planning for Higher Education in France 269

modelled. The organization, curriculum and teaching methodsof the secondary schools have been transformed. It must neverbe forgotten that with far-sighted and courageous leadershipgreat changes can be effected quickly in a centralized system.National direction of higher education has not prevented expan-sion, dispersion, diversification, experimentation and innovation.On the contrary, it has fostered them. It has not entailed loss

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of the academic freedom of staff and students. On the contrary,university professors and students have maintained the traditionof actively opposing features of the contemporary politicalregime. Planning has, however, led inevitably to some loss ofthe autonomy of institutions, which may not now establish atwill courses and institutes. This loss has been compensated inthe eyes of some by greater efficiency and concentration of re-D

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sources. How can a modern pluralist society maintain a satis-factory balance between direction by the state and local initia-tive and enterprise? Such is the dilemma facing the liberal de-mocracies in higher education — dirigisme or laissez-faire.

France has recently been divided into twenty-one new eco-nomic entities called 'regions', a regrouping of the ninety depart-ments, and regional committees of economic development havebeen appointed.43 As these committees will help to elaboratethe Fifth Plan of 1966-9, there will be greater possibilities ofregional co-operation and contribution to the planning of highereducation. The planning of education within the generalnational economic planning has undoubtedly played an import-ant part in the resurgence of France as a great power. It couldbe that France, by its policy of harmonisation, co-ordination,planification, by its attempts to unite the advantages of planningwith those of liberty and initiative in higher education, haspointed the way to the other liberal democracies.

43 'Regional Planning – France is all Logic' in The Economist, 9 May1964.

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