The French university system

I just don’t get it

It’s about time I told you a bit more about the university here and how things work (or don’t sometimes as the case may be). In France they’re fans of education. Children can go to state-provided pre-schools from the age of 3, then by the time you get to the other end of the education system, you’re expected to have a degree in order to be qualified for a lot of jobs, and many students are looking to do a Masters in order to get the job they want.

Unfortunately when you talk about the French university system with any French person or foreigner who has been here for a while, everybody moans about it and doesn’t seem to have much confidence in it. Except for maybe the highly prestigious ‘grandes écoles’, but they’re something else. The French university system seems to be lacking resources, a bit outdated, and in complete disorder with no one being able to do much about it.

There are two large problems in my opinion (plus a number of others). The first is that there does not seem to be much (if any) standardisation… is a grade of 12 out of 20 the same with one teacher as it is with another? I don’t think so and (to my knowledge) nothing is done about this. Are all the students of a particular course assessed the same? No. Are they taught the same material? No. Therefore the knowledge a person gains in a module and whether or not you pass will largely be down to which teachers they have been lucky or unlucky enough to have.

The second is this: A range of students obtaining the equivalent of A levels can sign up to any one course, meaning you have ‘A’ calibre students in the same class as ‘E’ just-scraped-a-pass students. Now this means the ‘A’ students have to put up with the ‘E’ students in all their classes. This isn’t so bad for lecture theatres crammed full of students where the teacher just talks at the students, but it’s not so great for smaller, more interactive classes (like mine). Some of the more capable students are really held back by their lazier or less intelligent class mates. One second year student said to me she felt she hadn’t learnt anything in 1^st year because they were going over basic things and having to put up with less serious students in the class, so she thought it had been wasted time.

The French system is one which is about the survival of the fittest. The French expect a high drop-out rate in first year (1 in 5 students or higher I would estimate!). If you get below 50%, you don’t get into second year, and already lots will start to drop out or change course in first year by Christmas. (This resulting in me having new students post half term, and numerous people telling me X isn’t doing the course any more as I try and organise end-of-term assessments). They also expect a large number to not get through to third year.

I can’t help thinking if the system was more just and regulated and everything worked towards the same quality result, maybe there would be more jobs available off the back of a Bachelor’s degree and not so many would have to prove themselves by doing an extra two years in education (a Masters).

Someone told me this week “The teachers don’t care and the students don’t care”. Well, I don’t completely agree with that from what I’ve seen, but it can be the case because it starts to get tiring to battle against all the difficulties encountered in the system. I’ve certainly been hurt by not-caring attitudes and found it extremely hard to find my way in this system with very little direction from more experienced people.

Aside from that…

I’ve not had a very good week. I’ve had a cold, am battling tiredness, and feeling lost in 100s of oral exams which are time-consuming and difficult to mark. The highlight of my week was having lunch with my American friend Halle, at a Chinese buffet J

Bonne semaine* everyone, hope you’re keeping warm in the colder weather!

Fiona x

*Have a good week