interview with the French Minister of Education, Claude Allègre

This is not new but to me it is, I read it for a first time and find it very informative.
maybe other readers will find this interesting and informative as I did.

FRANCE
The following is a recent interview with the French Minister of Education, Claude Allègre

Q: You have proposed breaking down higher education study in France into three, five and eight-year cycles in compliance with international standards. How will you handle short-term programs such as the Brevet de Technicien Supérieur (Certificate of Higher Technician) or the Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie (University Diploma of Technology), which require two years of study after the Diplôme du Baccalauréat?

A: This is not just a proposition anymore. The plan has already been approved and the official texts have been published. European harmonization (of education) is working successfully without any major problems. The mastaire, earned after a two-year program following the licence (licentiate), is a new diploma. We changed the regulation, which dates from Napoléon, by adding a fourth graduation certificate, the mastaire, along with the baccalauréat, the licence and the doctorat (doctorate). This emphasizes the importance of the licence. Students who graduate with a Brevet de Technicien Supérieur or a Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie will become eligible to obtain a professional licence after an additional year of study that includes internships. Everybody has been trying to establish European diplomas these past 20 years. But with each country intent on keeping its own particularities, no one could agree on a solution.

However, this method of harmonization is making higher education study programs throughout Europe mutually compatible with one another. Germany, Italy, Great Britain and France agreed on two distinct levels of university education. One would be similar to the American undergraduate level, and consists of three years of university study beyond the baccalauréat (high school) diploma. The other one would require two additional years of study and be equivalent to the universally recognized master's degree level. This second level will include existing diplomas such as the maîtrise and the Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies (Diploma of Advanced Study) or the maîtrise and the Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures Spécialisées (Diploma of Higher Specialized Studies). The 29 countries participating at the conference of Bologna agreed on this system of harmonization.

The principle of harmonization has another objective: to integrate the Grandes Ecoles into European higher educational system. While French people may be especially proud of their Diplôme d'Ingénieur (Engineering Diploma), it is not recognized in other countries. Henceforth, engineering students will obtain a mastaire diploma when graduating from the Grandes Ecoles or engineering schools. This is the first time that universities will allow the Grandes Ecoles to issue equivalent diplomas. The decision will allow the Grandes Ecoles to enter into the European system of higher education. We are integrating them; we are not trying to eradicate them. In exchange, the Grandes Ecoles will accept students who have earned licence diplomas from a university. L'Ecole Polytechnique is now accepting 40 students from French universities and 40 foreign students. Two-thirds of the Grandes Ecoles (the ones that come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of National Education) have implemented this reform.

The philosophy behind these measures is obvious: Universities and Grandes Ecoles are poles apart, and combining them is out of the question. Both institutions (universities and Grandes Ecoles) should retain a separate identity. However, they should also coexist in harmony and should complement one another.

Q: International accreditation systems today (American and European) give legitimacy to an increasingly global market. Isn't a purely French label on education somewhat outdated?

A: It has nothing to do with a purely French label. On the contrary, it means developing an internationally recognized system within a French environment that respects particularities and traditions. It should not be forgotten that, in most countries, universities are autonomous. Recognition of diplomas from one university to another is a bilateral exercise. It does not involve the government. From now on, they will all have common references. Up until now, students graduating from the French "Grandes Ecoles" were sometimes admitted at the undergraduate level in the United States. L'Ecole Polytechnique was not able to establish an equivalency for its diploma with degrees offered at Oxford or Cambridge. Under the current reform however, students will leave L'Ecole Polytechnique with a mastaire.

Q: Business Schools are particularly fragmented, and the smallest ones experience difficulties. What can be done to improve the situation?

A: Most of these schools fall under the jurisdiction of the chambers of commerce. Even if Hautes Etudes Commerciales (Higher Business Studies), ESSEC or universities such as Paris-IX Dauphine enjoy solid reputations, we have the problem of too many small schools but no real big ones. There is a risk that, in the future, graduates of English-speaking universities will hold higher positions while French graduates will be mostly relegated to middle management jobs. Therefore it is essential for us to create high-level business schools. In Europe there are no business schools in the same league with say the Harvard Business School or the Sloane School of Management at MIT. How do we establish them? The British have proposed launching joint-programs between Oxford and the Hautes Etudes Commerciales and a German school. But I am not sure that this is the answer. Moreover, we are behind the United States in the field of technology management. A team (involving the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry) is actually doing research and working on this issue right now.

Q: The business schools are behind engineering schools and universities in terms of globalization. What is the next step to facilitate student exchange abroad?

A: We created EduFrance to recruit students. It managed to enroll about a hundred Brazilian students inour engineering schools. The number of students coming from South East Asia has increased by 40 percent. About 4,000 Chinese and 250 Indians are currently studying in France. We are also trying to attract more students from India, Japan, China and Mexico. In addition, we will soon be targeting South Korea, Argentina, Africa, the Mediterranean countries and Eastern Europe. Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA) has been really successful in this respect. About 50 percent of its enrollment is currently international students. I am hoping that Polytechnique, Centrale, Arts et Métiers or the Ecoles Normales Supérieures will have similar success. As for French students, we hope that within five years every student who graduates after five years of university study will have spent at least 6 months in a foreign European country.

Q: Many Business Schools are merging today to remain viable. Do you think this will happen to public engineering schools?

A: I am not sure. However, we have a real problem with schools of chemistry, which are too small and spread out. Some of them only have 40 students at each level, which is making it difficult to maintain high quality laboratories. Germany does not have chemistry schools with fewer than 1,000 students. Other problems exist, as well. We do not have any major schools in computer science nor in biochemistry. These fields have only been developed within universities. Should we create a parallel system of "Grandes Ecoles" or reinforce the university system, represented by the IUP (Professional University Institute), which has the advantage of being research based?

— Le Nouvel Economiste

Learner

 

Thanks Lerner. Where can I find the official websites in English for such kind of information?

 

At a guess, here ?

I suppose another reference to this notice isn't needed.

 

OK

Ops, I will remember to follow this.

Learner

 

Assuming that James' link is accurate, this interview is 5 years old. Does anyone know if this person is even still the Minister of Education?
Jack

 

No you won't! You keep being told about this, among many other things, and you just don't listen. Your promises are as empty as your assertions and most other of your statements here... and elsewhere.

And isn't it curious how Lerner's posts here, and Rector's posts elsewhere, always seem to be about roughly the same things at roughly the same times...

...yet Lerner denies he's also Rectu... er... I mean, Rector. A month or so ago it was an obsession with IUFS. This month it's France and VAE. Next month... who knows, but it will, no doubt, also be a waste of everyone's time.

And, Lerner, where's your answer-to/agreement-with -- and then either your offer make arrangements for it, or your request of me to do so -- my wanting to have "peace talks" with you that I offered in the other thread? It's hard to suspend my criticism of you -- to cut you any slack -- in places like this, when you won't follow-through in places like that.

Oh.. by the way... it's "Oops," not "Ops." You said you wanted to learn; and that what we're doing here is helping your English... so I'm just tryin' to help.

 

Maybe he's Spesnatz.

 

No, Illuminatti.
Jack

 

Let there be light.

Brewer

 

I nno know my engllis so good soo I post lot stuff make nonsens....

Sibeera iss colld

 

Sorry, I didn't mean the Illuminatti. I meant the Templars.
My mistake.
Jack

 

Well, we have enough Sam Spades here to skin that bird.

 

Knights of Pythias?
Priory of Scion?
Flat Hat Club?
Bilderberg Group?
Quill and Dagger?
Book and Snake?
Carbonari?
Wide Awakes?
Cambridge Apostles?
and of course, let's not leave out
THE JESUITS!!!???

Jack

 

I will follow this rule, As in 99% recently I did this time I simply forgot the link. But as far as my posts I have my reasons and they serve good cause. Your opinion is of no importance to me.

As far as this being a 5 year old interview

We have many deferent studies for example the 5 year old study
about DETC degree acceptance etc.
I would like to know what is the status in France, can today
Private ecols award Masters degree or not?
So will many other readers.

So I found this interview wile 5 year old very interesting, by the way my friend Rector is on the phone we even had a bear together a few days ego, on this issue we share comon interest and actually many people in our communities as well.

So now I'm the Illuminati now what happened to Azad
Yes Order out of Ciaos
I did travel the East you know.
No I'm the Templar, but actually I'm a Jesuit priest.

For people who read this interview and liked the info thanks for your emails and messages its good to know that tere are some
positive people out there and not 3 headed monsters.

Learner

 

Can some one validate this news from france

DESS/DEA is obsolete as of this September.
From now its Mastaire for all Masters Level including Engineer Diploma.

Per my friends Rector email.

Learner

 

Of course, back in the old aed days you received similar admonishments and you made similar promises yet today you continue to make the same "mistakes" and the same promises.
Slow lerner?
Jack

 

No. Moshe pit.

(Ohgod... this play on words thing is gonna' be more fun than the two-Lerner thing... I can see it now!)

 

TW

 

Shame on you Gregg.

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21026
Senior Member

Registered: May 2004
Location: Northern California and/or Northwest Indiana
Posts: 1746
Re: Katrina - not 100s, 1000s dead? A fearsome report

quote:
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Originally posted by Orson
Katrina - not 100s, 1000s dead? A fearsome report
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Are there any spammers among 'em, by any chance?

Oh, alright. I'll stop.


__________________
Gregg L. DesElms
A lowly barnacle on the
hull of the S.S. DegreeInfo


Gregg responce on the tragic events.

Very funny Gregg very funny!!!

Discrase

You be the judges.

Learner

 

Oh, my... aren't you clever.

Do you really think that anyone who's been following the whole Lerner thing around here can't see that you're now just doing some kind of weird, pathetic, immature lashing back? Or that they can't see that you won't respond to anything meaningful in a meaningful way in the other threads where there was actually a substantive issue being discussed; and that that's, in part, why we've been hounding you?

You really think this will have an impact? Are you really that slow on the upbeat? Really?

There's no one here who cannot see -- at least once it's pointed-out to them -- that my remarks elsewhere herein were about SPAMMERS, and not about hurricane victims. My having tied the... how did you put it... the "tragic events" to SPAMMERS, in another thread, doesn't change that.

People who aren't slow on the upbeat can see that.

People who are... well... I guess they make posts like yours, above...

...including intentional misspellings of "response" and "disgrace" -- just to name two of seemingly thousands of other easy words -- as part of their silly, little masquerade.