“At university, we value courses considered profitable”

Thursday, January 13, before the presidents of universities, Emmanuel Macron spoke of his desire to reform the French universities that he wants more “professionalizing“. The Head of State also said that the higher education system could not stay “without any price for almost all students“.

Fields such as sociology or philosophy are devalued.

Celine, 20 years old

at franceinfo

Céline, 20, is a philosophy student at La Sorbonne (Paris). She regrets a logic of profitability which would come back regularly, according to her, in the mouths of certain politicians. “Routes considered profitable are valued. Philosophy is useless, in the sense that there is no economic utility behind it. And yet, today, we have to work on people and their relationship to the environment and nature, for example.“

For Céline, this lack of valorization of the human sciences leads to a form of hyper-selection which pushes students to take another path. “We start looking for formations that are more normal and more profitable economically to fit into the mold.“

I would like the subject of universities to be in the programs and in the proposals of the candidates for the presidential election.

Celine, 20 years old

at franceinfo

If Céline is asking for more budget for universities, she would also like this theme to be mentioned more in the 2022 presidential campaign. “The university has not been approached, worked on or thought about enough, especially since we are the transition generation.“

More broadly, the political class “don’t really want“to the student.”It remains fairly closed circles on themselves even if they tend to open up and even if we are invited to meetings.“For Celine, the”personification“around the presidential figure is paradoxical.”We would like a president or a president to lead and when the president is there, we no longer agree.” The “only“Solution for the student would be to”move to a Sixth Republic and other modes of operation.“