French High Educational System Explained

Thèmes abordés

France, Education, University system, French and Chinese systems compared

Résumé du document

Higher education is one's basic rights according to the French Constitution, for this reason, it is accessible to all, in theory. It is a quite complicated system, that doesn't really relate to other systems (American, English etc). It's first aim is its universality, but we will see how this is challenged
and what are the problems of the french system.

Extraits

[...] Indeed, the fact that there is no selection means that many students go to the university to and test and after one year they realize that they want to do something else. This phenomenon is very hard to deal with on a strictly material level. So to conclude, I believe that the Chinese system needs modifications as for now it is very hard and competitive and can be negative for the students. But the French system, as nice and fair as its seems faces also many problems, most of them being lack of money. [...]

[...] The University First you can go to the university, in France it's a public service, education is accessible for everybody. There is no selection and its free, you register then attend the classes and you can pass from one year to the other if you successfully pass the final exams at the end of each year. You can get a Licence after 3 years of studies, then a Master after 5 years, then a PhD. The “Great Schools” You can also decide to go to a “Grande Ecole” (Great School), this is usually for top highschool students, the selection is very hard and the competition is fierce. [...]

[...] Dora Borrione - Fudan University - Chinese Culture and Society French High Educational Systems explained Higher education is one's basic rights according to the French Constitution, for this reason, it is accessible to all, in theory. It is a quite complicated system, that doesn't really relate to other systems (American, English etc). It's first aim is its universality, but we will see how this is challenged and what are the problems of the french system. French higher education At the end of highschool, you take an exam, called the “baccalaureate”, it measures the student accomplishments in all the classes he had during highschool. [...]

[...] But this usually works in the favour of upper class students as they have to pay for private education and tutors etc the French system is designed to promote social diversity and meritocracy but it seems that nowadays, the it has become harder to climb the social ladder through education years ago the selection was much earlier and private education much less popular, so the standard good student had a strong chance to do prestigious studies, whereas now, money comes in the way of such a cursus: for example to go to the best public high schools in Paris, you need to leave nearby, and 90% of them are in very expensive neighbourhoods of Paris, and for the prestigious private high schools you need to pay a lot of money. And it is the same with high education: the best schools are mostly expensive and upper class students have advantages given their familial background and privileged education. [...]

[...] Indeed some of the Grandes Ecoles start directly after highschool: you take the exam during the summer after the end of highschool an if you pass it then you can go and study there. These schools usually function on the same Bachelor/Master/PhD pattern. High School years) BACCALAUREAT Final Highschool exam, nationwide (18 years old) University ‐Free selection study, and you need to pass midterms and ?inals each year to pass onto the next year Classes Preparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles (prep schools for "Great Schools") . ‐Free . [...]