I’m giving you this article today just for some interesting perspectives into French culture. (And sorry that the post title has nothing to do with the actual story.)
Link: Universities going autonomous
According to the French Minister of Superior Education, Valérie Pécresse, today marks a historic event in French education history. Woot!
Mme Pécresse revealed 20 universities that, beginning next year, will slowly progress towards autonomy. For us capitalist Americans this is no big deal, but non! It is for the French!
As a country with socialist tastes, France has controlled education since the beginning of la Vème République; however, things started changing on August 11, 2007, when a bill was passed calling for autonomous universities in order to compete with other schools internationally.
The 20 listed universities are being considered as “pilot schools”, testing the waters of freedom before setting another 65 schools loose.
For Christian Lerminiaux, a dean at one of the 20 pilot universities, autonomy is a blessing. What especially pleases him is the ability to form his own faculty and to manage the budget.
Before the reform, the government chose the teachers and placed them in universities. For the faculty, the university was just there to provide them with room and board. The autonomy, according to Lerminiaux, “will allow us to stimulate our personnel, who will identify themselves more strongly with our university.”
Financially, the schools will be given freedom to pursue projects of their own, in areas they see fit. Also, a predicted €250,000 stipend from the government is bound to help out quite a bit… Lerminiaux is proud to say that the school is working on a project to improve campus security and surveillance, a project impossible without autonomy (can you imagine the French government funding security projects at its 100+ universities?!).
With such a large amount of spending, let’s hope tuition doesn’t increase to match it…
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