Opacity, inconsistencies, lack of places and endless waiting lists… Since its appearance in the French system four years ago, the Parcoursup admissions platform has become the symbol of saturated higher education. Each year, many unions denounce the flaws of the system and try to support disappointed students. During the presidential campaign, Jean-Luc Mélenchon had also proposed to end Parcoursup.
At the end of the main admission phase of the platform, which ended on Friday July 15, nearly 94,000 candidates find themselves without assignment (including nearly 60,000 graduates), reveals the Ministry of Higher Education. The few thousand others include students in reorientation and candidates educated abroad. If an additional phase of admission still runs until September 16, the time is for concern for these young people on the floor.
Is France the only one to encounter these logistical challenges? While the platform launched in 2018 by former ministers Jean-Michel Blanquer and Frédérique Vidal is struggling to convince, franceinfo is looking at how other countries organize themselves to select their students for entry into higher education.
In the United Kingdom, a privatization of the university
Parcoursup is not the only platform to govern the entry of students into higher education. Across the Channel, its eldest, UCAS, for University and college access service (site in English), has already proven itself since its appearance in 1992. Parcoursup was also inspired by this model. The platform allows young people registered to make several wishes – five maximum compared to ten in France – for the establishments of their choice. The universities then make their selection directly: they can accept a student, refuse him or make him a conditional offer. No waiting list, then. On the other hand, like the complementary phase of Parcoursup, offered each year to students without assignment, UCAS has a clearing during which the establishments announce the places they have left.
Unlike Parcoursup, which has to deal with a saturated system and licenses that are overflowing with requests, the United Kingdom has no “real problem of places“, explains Annabelle Allouch, lecturer in sociology at the University of Picardy. British universities have more autonomy vis-à-vis the State than their French counterparts. “Establishments can therefore open or close places more easily, depending on the level of demand.“, specifies the researcher. This organization allows more flexibility to create places, but is based in return on a greater precariousness of the teacher-researchers: “To guarantee this offer, the establishments will have recourse to more doctoral students or temporary workers, whom we are not going to establish.“ Finally, on the student side, sufficient financial capacity to pay for studies is a decisive criterion.
“In recent years, a policy of increasing university tuition fees has gradually been put in place.”
Annabelle Allouch, lecturer in sociologyat franceinfo
In 2010, British MPs voted in favor of a bill on higher university fees promoted by David Cameron, Prime Minister at the time. Result: since 2012, British universities have been able to set their tuition fees at a maximum of 9,000 pounds sterling per year. “VSIt has created an extremely large system of debts“for students, notes the researcher.
While in France, higher education remains a public service, “aIn the United Kingdom, the diploma is not considered to be of general interest but of private use“, she concludes.
In Germany, a very early preselection
On the other side of the Rhine, not all students go on to higher education. Far from the French configuration where the baccalaureate is obtained each year by more than 90% of final year students, many Germans do not even pass the final secondary exam, called the Abitur.
In fact, considering that school is only compulsory from the age of 6 in Germany, a first selection takes place for pupils after only four years of common school. So aged 10, the children are directed to three branches, according to their skills. The first two pave the way for professionalizing courses “who intend to stimulate more technical skills through apprenticeships, for example“, explains to franceinfo Kilian Quenstedt, study advisor at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). After ten years of study in these professionalizing courses, “when students are around 16 years old“, they leave the school circuit and start working.
SOnly the third branch, the Gymnasium in German, provides access to the Abitur, the culmination of thirteen years of study. Thus, in 2020, only 48.6% of students who entered the school system at the same time thirteen years earlier passed and obtained the Abitur, according to data provided by the German Statistical Institute.
“In Germany, not having the baccalaureate is not synonymous with failure as may be the case in France.”
Kilian Quenstedt, study advisor at the German Academic Exchange Serviceat franceinfo
After passing the exam, it becomes the entry criterion for accessing many higher education courses. “Many undergraduate courses do not impose any additional selection criteria“, continues the study advisor.
A more specific selection nevertheless remains for four scientific sectors in tension: medicine, dentistry, veterinarian and pharmacy. As in France, they are subject to numerus clausus and students must also go through a specific platform to apply.
In Sweden, continuous monitoring and second chance
Contrary to the French model, in Sweden there is no generalized final examination for all high school students at the end of secondary school. The majority of candidates for higher education are selected on file, based on the marks obtained during their years in high school. “Continuous monitoring is therefore very important“, explains Gaële Goastellec, educational sociologist at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland).
But the course does not necessarily stop there for students who have not been admitted thanks to their grades. A specific examination also gives access to higher education. “It’s like a second chance“, explains Christopher Robin Karlsson, in charge of university mission at the French Institute of Sweden. This examination is in the form of multiple choice questions assessing the level in Swedish, English and mathematics.
“In France, we value precociousness, the fact of studying early. Being ahead is even a criterion of excellence. In the countries of the North, like in Sweden, there is no such linearity in studies.”
Gaële Goastellec, sociologist of educationat franceinfo
In this country of 10 million inhabitants, the question of places in the courses is less than in France “because the demographic issues are not the same“, reports Gaële Goastellec. The pressure of the diploma is also less strong there than in France and bmany Swedish high school students choose to take a gap year at the end of high school”for traveling“or decide”to work several years before resuming their studies“, observe Christopher Robin Karlsson. Thus, it is common to pass the specific examination for entrance into higher education “later” and even to reconcile certain training with his work or his family life.
In the United States, a scrutinized individual career
For its part, the American system does have a secondary school leaving examination. But this is not completely comparable to the French baccalaureate. If, in principle, entry into higher education in the United States is conditional on obtaining a High school diplomain fact, most institutions rely more on the results obtained in the SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) or ACT (American college testing). These tests, recognized by all universities, take the form of MCQs and assess students’ skills in English and mathematics.
“A double filter operates. The establishments will take into account both the student’s grades and the path he will have taken to arrive at such results.”
Gaele Goastellec, educational sociologistat franceinfo
Beyond the financial brake which indebted thousands of students each year, the admissions policy depends on each university. In the 1990s, the abandonment of the policies ofaffirmative action – positive discrimination measures consisting favoring ethnic minorities – pushed for the adoption of selection procedures that take into account the student’s journey as a whole. Concretely, this results in the addition in the files of letters of recommendation, essays but also information on the social origin of the student or his ethnic origin. A trend which, according to Gaële Goastellec, is spreading in many countries, such as the United Kingdom, China, Japan and France.