University professors decry a failing system

Five years after controversial reform granted France’s public universities greater autonomy over budget, staff, curriculum and funding, professors seem to be anything but happy, writes Guillaume Guguen for France24.

Last month, several professors and researchers penned an op-ed in the left-wing daily newspaper Libération, denouncing the deterioration of France’s public universities and outlining their grievances. Chief among them were poorly equipped classrooms, libraries being shut down and insufficient funds.

Many blame the dire situation on the controversial 2007 ‘Pécresse Law’ (named after Valérie Pécresse, former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s minister of higher education and research), a reform intended to rejuvenate French universities by giving them greater autonomy in managing tasks that had previously been handled by the government. But the reform has done little to improve the stature or functioning of the French university system, according to those who work within it.
Full report on the France24 site