With two million students, which is an increase of over 50% in less than twenty years, universities are cracking at the seams, bearing the weight of massive student recruitment. Due to bad guidance and selection, students run headlong and en masse towards dead-end disciplines. We know only too well that demographic pressure is making things even worse. Universities are buckling, and resources are lacking to remedy the problem. French expenditure per student is said to be among the lowest in the �developed� world. To sum up, university has taken a step towards the third world, with its center and its �window on the world� (the Sorbonne in Paris), and its satellites spread throughout France.
Furthermore, this journey into French universities highlights the contrast between different realities. New universities are being born discretely before our very eyes. It must be said that universities do indeed end up selecting the students who will continue (in direct opposition to one of the founding principles of education in France), and French universities are not only becoming autonomous, but competitive. Universities take in motivated students, and in most cases, give back an elite group, ruthlessly, but with discretion.

Photos

Credits

Directed by

Isabelle Sylvestre

Co-writers:

Jean-Michel Gaillard & St�phane Kh�mis

Produced by

Cie des phares et balises, France 3

Technical information

Copyright :

1999

Running time:

52 minutes

Broadcasts :

France 3 (03/13/1999)