10,000 new university places to be created for school leavers

France’s minister for higher education says 10,000 new university places will be created to cope with the huge demand after record numbers of students passed the Bac exam this year, qualifying them for university entrance, reports RFI.

A French student with a pass in the Baccalauréat exam, sat by most pupils in the final year of secondary school, is usually eligible for a university place. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, a record 95.7% of students were awarded one of the three types of Baccalauréat this year. The assessment was based on their year-round schoolwork, instead of the usual set of exams, which were cancelled.

The minister for higher education, Frédérique Vidal, told Le Parisien newspaper that most of the new university places will be in subjects where there is most demand from students, such as nursing, physiotherapy, paramedical subjects and social studies. Applications for study in these fields have apparently doubled or tripled, according to the minister.
Full report on the RFI site