Radical plans to create a French ‘Ivy League’ are gathering pace as the first winners of a new elite universities scheme worth Euro 7.7 billion (Rs.50,820 crore) start to receive funding. The Initiative d’Excellence (Idex) scheme is part of the biggest shake-up in French higher education for almost 40 years. It is designed to establish five-seven “world-class” universities capable of competing internationally for the best students and academics.
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Driven by President Nicolas Sarkozy, the proposed ‘Sorbonne League’ will require non-selective universities, the highly selective grandes écoles and France’s independent research organisations, such as the National Centre for Scientific Research, to work together for the first time in exchange for investment. Three of these academic ‘clusters’ — the University of Bordeaux (which comprises eight institutions), University of Strasbourg (a merger of three Strasbourg universities, various grandes écoles and specialist schools) and the University of Paris Sciences et Lettres (integrating 13 institutions) — were selected in late June for a state endowment of Euro 1 billion (Rs.6,600 crore) each, which should yield an annual income of up to Euro 40 million.
Such heavy investment in the context of cuts in other public funding and fears over the level of national debt is not, however, the most revolutionary aspect of the project. Backing selected universities will lead to a stratification of the French system that runs contrary to the existing egalitarian model, in which all French universities are considered more or less equal and students usually attend their local institution.
Edouard Husson, vice chancellor of the universities of Paris, believes establishing a hierarchy of universities is vital to competing on the international stage. “Regional universities will be very successful in certain fields and important in terms of improving students’ employability. But our hope is that there will be four comprehensive universities in Paris and at least two will be very competitive,” says Husson.
Universities, grandes ecoles, specialist schools and research organisations will retain their often unique legal status, staff and selection procedures despite the mergers. But the new partnerships may allow universities to be considered as a single entity and therefore climb world ranking tables, in which France has performed poorly in recent years. The universities which receive endowments will also be required to work more closely with business to commercialise research and form spin-off companies. Nearly Euro 22 billion (Rs.142,500 crore) from a Euro 35 billion ‘Investing in the Future’ fund will be focused on higher education, with independent experts picking the best ideas, rather than ministers.
Excerpted from Times Higher Education