The French higher education system has long been a hodge-podge of various degrees: licence, BTS, DEUG, DESS… However with the recent Bologna reforms in Europe, all that is set to change.
“LMD” = Licence, Master, Doctorat
French university degrees are based on how many years of study is needed after the Baccalauréat, the French equivalent of a high school diploma or A-levels. The French Licence, or Bac + 3, is the equivalent of Bachelor’s degree in Anglo-saxon countries. Bac + 5 is a Master, and Bac + 8 is a doctorat. In theory, no matter which university you get your degree from, it should be the same, although in practice this isn’t the case.
University vs. Grande Ecole
The French higher education system is in fact split into two systems: the universities and the grandes écoles. The universities are entirely publicly funded, and tuition fees are no more than 300€ per year. Universities each offer a wide range of programmes and are generally focused on theoretical knowledge and research, and anyone with a baccalaureate is accepted.
Grandes Ecoles, on the other hand, are specialised institutions that focus on one sole area, such as business or engineering. The Grandes Ecoles were originally founded under Napoleon to funnel France’s best and brightest into public employment. Grandes Ecoles have more autonomy and receive less funding from the state, and therefore have much more liberty to set tuition fees, which can be 10 000€ or more per year, depending on the program.
To get into a grande école, students must generally take two years of preparatory courses (although some French grandes écoles allow students to enter directly from the baccalaureate) and then follow three years of the Grande Ecole programme. They then graduate with a Master’s degree in their chosen field.
So how does this work for employment?
Generally, a grande école is more highly regarded than a university, although certain programs and certain universities are still very highly regarded. French students generally go on to get a Master’s. Stopping at a Licence is usually seen as having stopped half way through your studies, which isn’t the case for Anglo-saxon universities.
Universities have suffered from a lack of business links, which facilitate entry into employment by offering internships. There is a significant portion of students who still hope to end up a bureaucrat rather than working in the private sector. This is starting to change, however, with recent reforms (link in French) that have given universities more independence, private foundations to raise money from the private sector, and the inclusion of at least one business leader on the school’s governing body.
