French university reform enters stress test time

Higher education minister Valerie Pecresse: charged with implementing the reform.

Not exactly. Giving autonomy to French universities was never going to transform them overnight. The first effect of the reform is on the governance of the institutions, with the elections of new boards of a maximum of 30 members, (instead of 60) and including private companies representatives. But it is only in 2008 that those boards and the university presidents they will elect get say if they choose to be autonomous, with a total control of their budget, personal and real estate assets, or to move slowly toward the autonomy for all, targeted for 2012.

As a result, the coming months look like a stress test for the reforms, to be implemented by research and higher education minister Valerie Pecresse. After all the talks and threats about social unrest, Pecresse is determined to ensure the changes will not be killed by one of those ideology battles that have derailed all previous attempts to update France’s university system over the past 20 years. 

Reassurance

Her first move was to reassure student unions’ that there demand for equal fees at each of the 85 French public universities will be honoured. Because they cannot charge differentiated fees (and will not be able to even after the reform), French universities have resorted to increasing their income by charging fees for specific services, such as access to libraries or computer rooms. Pecresse has also increased student scholarship support by 2.5 per cent. And she has asked her department to accelerate the payment of this support to its 500,000 beneficiaries (one student in three).

Whether all that will be enough to mollify research personnel and student unions remains to be seen. They fear – probably rightly –  that the new system will introduce competition between the 85 French campuses.

Some universities have been quick to adopt the spirit of the reform. University Claude Bernard in Lyon this summer created its first foundation, financed by pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi. With €550,000 to start with, the new foundation aims to grab more research grants, as well as to finance equipment and professorships. It is hoped the foundation will raise €10 million during the next five years.

Companies will have now to show that after all their talk about the need to create bridges between public universities and the private sector, they are ready to put their money behind their words. This economic response to the reform is more likely to be seen as the true test of its success than for the reform than other outcomes.