how high school students, confused by Parcoursup, are defrauded by private schools

Some high school students, confused by the platform of orientation towards higher education, turn to more or less serious training.

Parcoursup is a source of great stress for young people and their parents who sometimes get lost there, in what can appear like a jungle. The platform opened on Wednesday January 17 to Terminale high school students to register for higher education training, until March 14. But some prefer to turn to private schools, outside of Parcoursup. These pharmacies are multiplying at high speed.

But all this training is far from serious and some students are fooled, like Martin. In 2021, this IT enthusiast found a school, Campus Academy in Aix-en-Provence, which offered him training that made him dream, in a beautiful setting. But during the second year, problems arise: “We no longer had wifi, no heat, no electricity and as the months went by, the teachers left because they were not paid”says Martin.

“Everything was beautiful, everything was perfect. We are being sold dreams.”

Martin, student whose private school closed during his studies

at franceinfo

In February, the management announced: the school was closing its doors and leaving 130 students behind. It is in fact the network of private schools founded by Michel Ohayon, a businessman well known in multiple other cases of bankrupt companies, such as Camaïeu, Go Sport and Gap. The students are disappointed: “We find ourselves with a loan to pay for a school that costs between 6 800 and 9 000 euros per year, rent to pay and no diplomae, explains Martin. We didn’t think there was any risk. It was the American dream. At no point did I think this was going to happen. A school closing, for me, is unrealistic.” In this case, several students have filed complaints and legal proceedings are underway.

Lack of transparency

This extreme situation of a school going bankrupt fortunately does not happen every day, but students may be confronted with other types of problems, particularly in the readability of promises, while private higher education has exploded in recent years. last years. 25 years ago, this represented 5 or 6% of students, today it is more than 26%.

Some private schools literally play on words and offer “masters”, which have nothing to do with the recognized “master” diploma. Others issue diplomas not recognized by the State. It is therefore not easy for families to navigate between diplomas, titles, grades or even visas. Fraud enforcement has also investigated in 2023: of the 80 establishments inspected, one in three is singled out for “deceptive commercial practices” and more than half for “regulatory anomalies”. The National Education Ombudsman recently denounced this lack of transparency.

In fact, many of these new establishments are owned by for-profit groups, or pension funds which demand rapid returns on investments. These newcomers also overshadow the major business and engineering schools, public or private, but recognized by the State (such as the Skema Business School, Essec, or the Journalist Training Center, the CFJ).

Soon a label to sort things out?

These major schools regularly denounce these abuses. “It’s unfair competitionsays Laurent Champaney, president of the Conference of Grandes Écoles, in the sense that we, public or non-profit establishments, are committed to quality. For us, this creates economic models that are strained. And besides that, we see operators who have no constraints, who do what they want, with a lot of marketing because they have a very profitable economic model. They are aimed at a somewhat captive audience, which they divert from more serious and better quality training., he laments. The Conference of Grandes Écoles is calling for greater regulation from the State.

The Federation, which brings together non-contract private schools, is aware of this issue of readability. She has just released her own platform, “Parcours Privé”, which is a sort of Parcoursup duprivate. With one big difference: it is only an information site and not a registration site. Alain Léon, vice-president of “Parcours Privé”, speaks of completely fair competition with the rest of the schools, even if there are some abuses. “As in any activity, we will always be able to find actors who do not respect the rules, who are indeed in a communication which is not sufficiently clearhe admits. From there to systematize and make it a general rule for all professionalizing private education, I think it is extremely abusive.” he adds.

For its part, the Ministry of Higher Education has been working for more than a year on a label, to sort between schools which are serious and those which are not. The difficulty is finding the right criteria to make this sorting. Tests are being carried out with a few families, with the aim of having this label ready for the launch of Parcoursup 2025.