University movement in France (2007-2009)
There has been tension in the French higher education system since Valérie Pécresse was appointed French Minister of Education and Research. Numerous reform proposals have sparked several protest movements, including the one in 2009, the longest since 1968. This month-long movement put a strain on the political climate in France, including within the ruling UMP faction, and led academic circles to question the Bologna Process . A similar movement arose at the same time in Spain.
origin
The LRU law
Shortly after her appointment as Minister for Research and Higher Education, Valérie Pécresse announced the start of a reform that had been presented in the election manifesto of the new President Nicolas Sarkozy : the so-called Law on Freedom and Responsibility of Universities (" Liberté et Responsabilité des Universités ") ), or “ LRU Law ” for short, was intended to enable the French universities to be radically rebuilt.
The budget of each university should no longer be granted by the ministry for each department individually, but the universities should receive an entire financial package, and the academic committees of the universities should have a free hand to distribute this money according to department and project. The rules for electing to these bodies were also changed, with the introduction of majority voting rights in both teacher classes (lecturers and professors). The university president should also assume responsibility for personnel.
The aim of the LRU law is an adjustment to the European and Anglo-Saxon standards within the framework of the Bologna process . By reducing bureaucracy, the universities should be given more initiative. The project also allowed the presidents to enter into partnership agreements with private companies to raise additional research funding. But since Nicolas Sarkozy had presented a drastic reduction in public spending and the reduction of civil servant posts as the basis of his financial policy, the opponents of the project thought that this law should clear the way for the state to neglect universities and even for privatization. The contempt with which Sarkozy had spoken of especially humanistic courses in his election campaign seemed to confirm this impression, and the opposition found their strongholds in the humanistic and humanities faculties, which feared being largely neglected due to their lack of profitability. That is why the opponents spoke of a "mixture of feudalism (with the increased power of the university administration) and neoliberalism ". The government, on the other hand, defended a “necessary modernization”.
The opposition suffered a first setback when the rather social democratic student union Unef approved the draft law after the introduction of a numerus clausus for the master’s courses had been abandoned. The law was passed in a special session of parliament in July and signed by Nicolas Sarkozy in August (during the parliamentary break). In October, a protest movement broke out at several universities (mainly in the humanities), which the UNEF briefly joined, but which broke up after the announcement of a funding plan (“ Plan Campus ”).
Spring and Summer 2008
The resentment began to grow again when Valérie Pécresse announced her plan to set up research. In France, the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS , National Center for Scientific Research) has a central role in research. The CNRS has its own budget, but also works with the lecturers and professors within the framework of the “ Unités Mixtes de Recherche ” (UMR, Joint Research Units). Despite relatively little government investment, this system was ranked sixth in the world in the Shanghai ranking (universities are ranked much lower , which has led to heavy criticism of the impartiality and methods of ranking in the academic community). The creation of the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR, National Research Agency), which is to award grants for special projects, and the restructuring of the CNRS in various specialized institutes, indicated a future fragmentation of the center and aroused fears of a further reduction in the public funds, all the more so as the minister suggested promoting partnerships with companies and the establishment of special teaching and research centers (“ Chaires d'excellence ”). The research credits, which did not depend on the ANR, should also be part of the overall package of every university, together with the other departments: the power of the presidents and the mandarins seemed confirmed, and this development led to several successes for anti-LRU lists in the elections to the university committees in spring 2008. The symbol of this resentment was the defeat of the incumbent president of the Sorbonne University ( Paris IV ), Jean-Robert Pitte (previously regarded as more liberal-conservative) . The geography specialist close to the UMP was replaced by a left-wing coalition under the leadership of his predecessor, the (left-liberal) Romanist Georges Molinié . In the course of 2008 the successes of the anti-LRU lists multiplied.
Autumn 2008: the draft reforms on teacher training and the status of doctoral students and university teachers
In a few weeks, three reforms were presented, which together made the latent crisis break out. All drafts had been prepared without negotiations or discussions with representatives of the academic community.
Education Minister Xavier Darcos , who was already in trouble at the time because of a failed high school reform (which has since been abandoned), presented a plan in October that was to affect the training of teachers in schools and grammar schools. So far they had been accepted as civil servants after a national examination with a numerus clausus, spent a year at an Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres ( IUFM , university institute for teacher training) with numerous internships, then they became full teachers. The two exams were the CAPES (after a Bachelor or more often a year Master’s course) and the Agrégation , after a year’s Master’s course and an additional year for preparation. The Agrégés have places in higher classes than the Certifiés . The majority of university professors, especially in the humanities, are former Agrégés who have then graduated. After the reform, a “pedagogical master’s course” ( Master Enseignement ) should be introduced. Exam preparation should be a part of the second year, which should also include internships so that teachers could get a full position immediately after the exam results. The technical implementation of this plan proved to be difficult, however, and the opponents emphasized that there would be too many applicants to be able to offer all internships. The technical training would also deteriorate because the pedagogy lessons and exam preparation would leave less time for the master's thesis. The graduate students, who would have failed the numerus clausus of the examination, should also form "multitudes of precarious teachers without status," according to the unionists, who denounced the draft as an attack on civil servant status. The academic community was already fighting against this draft, which threatened the level of French teachers, when Valérie Pécresse revealed her own plans.
The two drafts by the university minister concern the status of university lecturers and doctoral students. A “general doctoral contract” (“Contrat doctoral unique”) is to be introduced for doctoral students . Otherwise it would be impossible to do a doctorate at a French university. The high school teachers would have more difficulties becoming lecturers than they do today. The draft also included the possibility of forcing doctoral students to do additional work (such as administrative work) without further benefits, while the contract would include a probationary period and make it easier for the university president to terminate the doctoral students.
The draft on the university professors changes the distribution between research and teaching time. So far, the two have been the same, but after the reform it should become easier for the university president to give less-rated teachers more hours of lectures and less research time. This assessment of the teachers' work would depend on the Bureau. With the reform of teacher training, this was a second demarcation between teaching and research.
In addition, there was the experience of the few universities that were supposed to adopt LRU status on January 1, 2009, and where the job and financial cuts caused severe problems.
The speech of January 22, 2009 and the outbreak of the strike
On January 22nd, Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech for the physics researcher and youngest Nobel Prize winner Albert Fert . He called it an exception in the French scientific landscape, and reprimanded the majority of researchers who, despite consistent means, did not achieve significant results. He added some derisive remarks against the researchers. This speech was seen as a provocation, and the minister's refusal to revise her projects added to the tension: the unions of the academic community and several associations called jointly on a strike and urged their colleagues to stop the lecture lists for the pedagogical master’s courses before Prepare ministry meeting on March 15th.
On February 2, several general assemblies took place, which decided the strike. On February 9, the opening day of the summer semester at the Sorbonne, a general assembly was held, the unexpected success of which led to the opening of three lecture halls for the debates. Finally, the presidents of eight universities made several speeches in the famous Amphithéâtre Richelieu and called for a strike until all drafts were withdrawn and general negotiations were opened on the future of the universities. In his speech, Georges Molinié spoke of the "most dangerous attacks on the French teaching system since the end of the Vichy regime ".
Forms of action
A demonstration day has been held every week since February 10th . Although the numbers of police and trade unions vary widely, reports from journalists consistently speak of tens of thousands of demonstrators each time. On January 29 and March 19, researchers, teachers and students took part in the demonstrations of the two general strikes, which gathered up to 3 million people on the streets.
The classes are strongly affected by the movement: some teachers hold them in public space as a form of demonstration, others go on strike at all, others usually work, apart from the demonstration days. Here and there blockages occurred, sometimes for weeks. Some attempts to occupy places such as the Sorbonne have failed: the demonstrators were evacuated by the police. Another form of demonstration is the accumulation of parties, conferences, alternative courses and activities in public spaces. The most classic form is the symbolic burial of research in a symbolic place, such as the Ecole Normale Supérieure. This form is particularly common in the Paris universities, especially in Paris III and Paris IV (a Sorbonne festival took place for days at the end of March).
The symbol of the movement is the novel The Princess of Clèves by Madame de la Fayette, a 17th century French novel considered the masterpiece of gallantry and classicism and which Sarkozy scoffed at several times, asking for example, that this kind of reading would be of no use to the teller, and that mere "sadists and fools" could recommend this book. On February 16, teachers and students read the novel in turn at the Panthéon. Reading took 6 hours.
Political development
After a week, several UMP MPs, including the university president Daniel Fasquelle and Pécresses predecessor François Goulard , began to criticize the minister's attitude. They wanted to rewrite the draft on the status of university teachers to end the strike. Pécresse first appointed a mediator, then gave in. This decision came too late, however: only small unions took part in the talks, were not satisfied with the compromise and protested against the other drafts. Meanwhile, the link between the college professor and graduate student drafts and the LRU law had also become clear, and the movement, even its moderate forces, now called for the law to be abolished. No part of the PhD draft has been changed (April).
For his part, he refused to change his plan for Xavier Darcos. His harsh statements contributed to the intensification of the opposition, so that he finally announced a one-year deadline. The new exams should not take place until June 2011. But this decision, and his other decisions on the exams or internships, only responded to technical problems, while the opposition denied the principle of a distinction between research and master's courses, as well as the abolition of the IUFM. So the movement continued for weeks. After the Easter break, it became clear that the government was not going to give up and threatened to consider the semester null and void, thereby invalidating grades and exams. After that there was a gradual return to the universities. The wave of strikes ended in the various centers between May 20th and June 8th. Opposition to the reforms continues, however, in the academic community, and debates and meetings are expected to take place in the summer to discuss how to proceed. After the government reshuffle on June 23, Valérie Pécresse remained in office, while Xavier Darcos moved to the social department.
Participant in the opposition movement
The movement is led by an assembly of delegates from the various universities, the Coordination Nationale des Universités.
In this front there are left forces, but also center and right groupings. This width is a second characteristic of this movement. The first is its duration. The pillars of the movement are:
- the left-wing civil servants' union FSU ( Fédération syndicale unitaire ) with its sub-unions SNESUP (university professors), SNCS (researchers), SNASUB;
- the more liberal-conservative university teachers' union AutonomeSup;
- Qualité de la Science Française, a non-partisan association that sometimes appears in elections and is often described as a center grouping;
- the education sectors of the major trade union confederations: CGT (Confédération Générale du Travail, left. Sub-union: FERC-CGT), CFDT (Confédération Française et Démocratique du Travail, left-liberal. Sub-union: SGEN-CFDT), UNSA (Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes) , FO (Force Ouvrière, left);
- Associations: Sauvons l'Université (Save the Universities, SLU), Sauvons la Recherche (Save Research, SLR).
- Nobel laureate Albert Fert or the French Academy of Sciences are also among the government critics.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Loi sur la Liberté et la Responsabilité des Universités [1]
- ↑ Unef et PS g ^ nés aux entournures. [2]
- ↑ Opération Campus Archivlink ( Memento of the original dated December 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ JR Pitte perd la présidence de Paris-Sorbonne [3]
- ↑ Le président Pro-Pécresse de Paris 7 démissionne archive link ( Memento of the original of July 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Draft by the Ministry ( PDF )
- ↑ Appeal on 8 November [4]
- ↑ draft ( PDF )
- ↑ draft ( PDF )
- ↑ Discours du 22 janvier archive link ( memento of the original from February 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ [5]
- ↑ Appel à la grève des cours [6]
- ↑ Videos [7]
- ↑ Enterrement de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la recherche. [8th]
- ↑ "Un sadique ou un imbécile" speech in Lyon on 23 February 2007
- ^ Lecture marathon de la Princesse de Clèves devant le Panthéon. [9]
- ↑ Le député UMP Fasquelle propose de réécrire le décret Pécresse [10]
- ↑ François Goulard demande le retrait du projet Pécresse [11]
- ↑ New draft ( PDF )
- ↑ Pécresse et Darcos confrontés à la relance de la contestation [12]
- ↑ Communiqué de Presse, 31 Mars [13]
- ↑ formation of Enseignants: L'union retrouvée. [14]
- ↑ Examens et diplômes: jeu dangereux. [15]
- ↑ UNEF, FSU, SLU appellent à la validation de l'année [16]
- ↑ Communiqué du président de l'université Paris-Sorbonne 20 May 2009 [17]
- ↑ Appel d'Autonome Sup [18]
- ↑ Press release ( PDF ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )
- ↑ "Dans les prochains jours et semaines, QSF sera aux côtés des collègues qui, dans les universités, manifesteront leur volonté de défendre les valeurs de l''Université" (26 January 2009)
- ↑ Albert Fert critique sévèrement Sarkozy et Pécresse. [19]
- ^ L'Académie des Sciences critique Nicolas Sarkozy. [20]
