Thierry Chevaillier

Rethinking the Financing of Post-Compulsory Education.

Throughout the world, the financing of education is in a state of crisis, a condition made even more acute by the simultaneous appearance of a doctrinal crisis with regard to the ends and the utility of education. For European higher education, the situation calls for the diversification of funding mechanisms. The public authorities, which up until now have borne most of the burden of higher education financing, must transfer a goodly portion of the burden to users, i.e., students and parents, and to the private sector. Various methods for financial diversification are explored as well as different formulae for user-financing.

French academics: Between the professions and the civil service

In France, where most higher education institutions are in the public sector, permanent academic staff at universities and other higher education institutions are tenured and enjoy a broad individual autonomy. The number of staff on short-term contracts is limited. Most part-time staff are drawn from professionals, business executives, and administrators – in both the public and private sectors. In recent decades, the number of teaching-only faculty expanded rapidly as tenured secondary school teachers were transferred to higher education institutions. As universities have acquired some autonomy, especially in academic matters, recruitment and promotion of staff combine elements of centralisation at the national level with local processes. Some degree of pay differentiation has been introduced through a growing use of supplementary compensation. As the system evolves toward increased self-governance of institutions, the autonomy enjoyed by the faculty is seen by administrators as an obstacle to the development of institutional policies.

Teacher training in France in the early 2010s

The organisation of teacher training was thoroughly transformed in France in 2010. This transformation was the consequence of three interrelated reforms: the requirement of a Master’s degree for all teachers, the new recruitment process for teachers and the integration of teacher training colleges (IUFM) into the universities. Universities are now responsible for providing initial training in programmes leading to a Master’s degree. The state school system then recruits graduates through a competitive examination and newly recruited teachers are offered ‘deferred initial training’, the exact content and duration of which have not yet been fully specified. By looking at the former conditions of training and at the new organisation, it is, however, possible to outline the content and purpose of this further training.

Between Necessity and Constraints: The Reform of Teacher Training in France (1990-2007)

Creation of the Instituts Universitaires de Formation des Maitres (IUFMs) testifies to the ambition to train new teachers who are in a better position to respond to the challenges of democratisation of secondary education. It is an issue of adding fresh impetus while taking into account a number of the consequences. However, if by and large, the IUFM seems to have responded to the aims set, a certain number of changes could be envisaged to still increase performance. Their integration with university, as laid down in the Fillon Law of 2005, could be one factor helping to increase efficiency.

Evaluation in French Higher Education: history, policy and debates

The French Higher Education System is presently undergoing one of the deepest transformations of its history. In the last few years, several major pieces of legislation, partly unconnected, have triggered a process of change that will alter the structure of the system, the relations among its various components as well as their internal organisation. Parallel to these structural changes, the higher education and research system has been building up a comprehensive evaluation apparatus.After a short account of the present state of higher education highlighting this paper will present the development of the methods and the institutions of evaluation over the last two decades.