Higher Education in France

12 May 2006 at 7:55 am Peter G. Klein 6 comments

| Peter Klein |

Having been in Paris during the recent mini-uprising over the CPE (a proposed change in French labor law making it easier for firms to fire, and thus presumably more attractive to hire, younger workers), I’m particularly interested in the French higher-education system. Today’s New York Times (simple registration required) has an illuminating piece on this. In higher education, as in so many areas, the Gauls buck modern trends:

There are 32,000 students at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris, but no student center, no bookstore, no student-run newspaper, no freshman orientation, no corporate recruiting system.

The 480,000-volume central library is open only 10 hours a day, closed on Sundays and holidays. Only 30 of the library’s 100 computers have Internet access.

The campus cafeterias close after lunch. Professors often do not have office hours; many have no office. Some classrooms are so overcrowded that at exam time many students have to find seats elsewhere. By late afternoon every day the campus is largely empty.

Sandwiched between a prison and an unemployment office just outside Paris, the university here is neither the best nor the worst place to study in this fairly wealthy country. Rather, it reflects the crisis of France’s archaic state-owned university system: overcrowded, underfinanced, disorganized and resistant to the changes demanded by the outside world.

Entry filed under: - Klein -, Teaching.

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6 Comments Add your own

1. Jung-Chin Shen | 12 May 2006 at 12:47 pm

These quotations are probably correct, but it is also worth mentioning that French higher education is somehow unique, huh, in a French way. In a country like France where people seem to truly believe centralized and elite system, the best schools are not public universities but grandes écoles such as the prestigious École Polytechnique. These grandes écoles attract the best students in the country and have a lot of resources. For example, HEC, a business school that is regarded as the best French business school, has abundant resources, facilities, and connections to educate the best business students in the country.

Well, how about INSEAD? Although INSEAD is regarded as superior to HEC in most countries in the world, some (many?) French only know HEC but are not aware of the existence of INSEAD. I earned my PhD at INSEAD. However, INSEAD’s PhD is not recognized by French government because we do not follow French higher education system. As a result, even though I believe we got better training than other French schools’ students (it is open to criticize), a PhD from INSEAD cannot be a professor in a French university. The way INSEAD solves the problem is similar to HEC’s solution: if an INSEAD PhD student wants, he or she can get two PhD degrees—one is from INSEAD and the other from a collaborative French University—thanks to our alliance. If an INSEAD PhD wants to becomes a professor at Université Paris, he or she has to use the French diploma.
2. JC Spender | 15 May 2006 at 10:10 am

Well, if INSEAD is not French, what is it? The temptation is to say it is American. But perhaps it is from another planet whereon other Gods are worshiped?
3. Peter Klein | 15 May 2006 at 11:49 am

JC, I hope readers with more direct personal experience can comment, but I'll add this: Just a couple of weeks ago a senior INSEAD faculty member told me, in no uncertain terms, "We are not a French University." INSEAD is an American university located in France, I was told.
4. Bo Nielsen | 15 May 2006 at 12:54 pm

This was cut from the website:

Is INSEAD an acronym? What does it mean?

40 years ago, when the school was first started, it was common to refer to the school as the European Institute for Business Administration. However, over the years, the school has extended its European roots to Asia, and has become increasing known as INSEAD (pronounced IN-SEE-ADD). It is no longer known as, nor is the name European Institute for Business Administration, used. Like Harvard is Harvard and Wharton is Wharton, INSEAD is INSEAD.

Why are you not considered to be a French business school?

It’s important that the school is defined correctly. We are a leading global business school, the only business school with integrated campuses in Europe and Asia, based in France and Singapore. Our roots in Europe go back 40 years, when we were created as a non-national management education institute. These roots extended into Asia in the 80’s through our Euro-Asia center, and have been extended through the establishment of our full campus in Singapore. In March 2001 we announced a broad-based alliance with the Wharton School of Business in the US. We are the only business school to be able to offer a truly global business education in this way.

I guess that EIBA was/is already taken..the key here seems to be that INSEAD is multicultural, diverse and a non-national management institute (whatever that means).

Viva la France…(by the way Denmark is masculin in French – so viva le Denmark)..
5. Jung-Chin Shen | 15 May 2006 at 7:40 pm

I would like to add one more point to supplement Bo’s cut from INSEAD website at the risk of self-serving bias: I was born and grow up in Asia (Taiwan), earned my PhD degree in Europe (France), and now work in North America (Canada). I do not think the geographic portfolio profile is what you usually see in our field. And that’s probably why I care how European that INSEAD is.
6. Paul | 8 June 2006 at 3:22 am

I would like to comment on Peter Klein.
INSEAD has absolutely nothing to do with the French system. Actually, you don’t even speak French there (only for shopping in town). It is a pure American style international business school, with the very best professors from all over the world. Many American, Asian and of course, Europeans. However, the studies are based on American Harvard (that’s where this school has its origins) style teachings. Excellent learning. INSEAD is focused on being extremely efficient and effective, much in contrast to the usual French schools.
I seriously doubt that French Grande Ecoles are much better than the French universities. Inefficient, bureacratic. And the learning style (you have to memorize a lot of useless stuff just to pass the exams, then reset your brain, and start all over for a different exam. No learning, but memorizing facts) is more than doubtful. I think, it might possibly change, if France would also open its school system to European style master and bachelor, as it is the case in Germany now. In Germany it happened to me that my Professor told me that with a US masters degree from a very well known institution I would need to study another year to get the German “Master”. In the US it was just the other way around. Call it European ignorance and arrogance. Same in France. Vive la grande nation!

How do I know that? I spent a year in France at a Grande Ecole and had good friends who studied at an adjacent Université. Many years later I spent another year studying at INSEAD.