Posted on 06/09/2007 11:08:55 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
THE head of one of France’s best known universities has called for the army to be deployed on his campus to prevent the notoriously restive students shutting it down in protest at President Nicolas Sarkozy’s overhaul of the education system.
Jean-Robert Pitte, president of the Sorbonne in Paris, believes that a law to make universities more competitive will prompt widespread student protests and an effort to force the government to back down.
“We must not give in,” said Pitte, a distinguished geography professor, in an interview last week. “The government must be ready to send in the army to maintain law and order.”
Sarkozy’s campaign to modernise France has led to comparisons with Margaret Thatcher and is expected to trigger an angry backlash from unions intent on protecting the status quo. University campuses, often the focus of French protests, are set to become the first battleground in what could be a protracted conflict.
Talks were under way in the education ministry last week on a law that would effectively let the heavily regulated universities run their own affairs. This is an attempt to restore French universities to the standing that they once enjoyed among the best in the world.
The measure has been decried as “Americanisation” by the French left in an example of the outmoded thinking that led to the shipwreck of the Socialist party in the presidential elections last month.
A second drenching is likely for the Socialists in the parliamentary elections starting today. Opinion polls have predicted a landslide for Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement party, which is expected to win two-thirds of the 577 parliamentary seats after a second round of voting next Sunday.
This would be a convincing mandate for reforms and the government has called for a special session of parliament in July. This is so that the university bill - and laws for “minimum service” on public transport during strikes, lowering taxes and a relaxation of the 35-hour week - can be approved.
Some have seen the flurry of reforms in July as an effort to sidestep trouble, since the universities will be closed and potential protesters will be on holiday. Even a minor reform of employment law prompted months of student protests last year, forcing the closure of universities and schools all over France. The government had to do a U-turn.
Hence Pitte’s call for help from the army. “The situation is catastrophic,” he said. “We cannot let protests on the street dictate government policy.”
Nothing makes the case for university reform more convincingly than the Sorbonne, focus of the student uprising in May 1968 as well as the rioting last spring. One in 10 of its students never goes to lectures, having signed on only in order to qualify for free health benefits and generous student discounts at cinemas and museums.
Under egalitarian rules that are a legacy of the 1968 student uprising, anyone passing the baccalauréat school leaving exam - the pass rate is 80% - is guaranteed a place in a university. Under the same egalitarian rules, university education is free, but this means that the universities never have enough money.
At the Sorbonne, founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon, a theologian, there is no cafeteria.
There is not even a student newspaper. Worst of all, however, is the high dropout rate: 45% of Sorbonne students do not complete their first year and 55% do not graduate.
Pitte wants to introduce fees. He also wants a new selection process. “Otherwise we are simply wasting teachers’ time on students who have no chance of success,” he said.
He may end up being disappointed. The law being discussed last week apparently did not envisage any selection process or fee paying. “We are pleased about that,” said Thierry Le Cras, a spokesman for the student union.
Even so, Le Cras did not rule out conflict. The very idea of universities having the autonomy to decide who they hire and what they teach was anathema to the union.
“It will mean that universities will compete against each other,” said Le Cras. “Degrees will have different values depending on where they are from. We want a national diploma that is the same for everyone, so that all students have the same chances when job hunting.”
The current system conspires against that, however. The dice are loaded in favour of the graduates from the fee-paying “grandes écoles”, which have difficult entrance exams and charge up to £3,500 a year. A large proportion of French business and political leaders graduate from such institutions. “So there is no equality of opportunity anyway,” said Pitte.
François Fillon, the prime minister, complained last week that French universities had fallen far behind those in the rest of the world. In the University of Shanghai’s 2006 world ranking of universities, the top French institution was 45th, behind four British universities.
“It is unacceptable,” said Fillon. “We should have done this university reform a long time ago.”
Lagging though it is in world rankings, the Sorbonne certainly has global renown, however. Prominent former pupils include such names as Pope Benedict XVI, Pol Pot, the Cambodian dictator and Jean-Paul Sartre, the philosopher.
The Sorbonne’s involvement in the intellectual history of the Parisian left bank makes it a holy relic to the left. Although the students complain about poor facilities, they are always quick to take to the barricades whenever the slightest changes are mooted. “It’s been going on for more than 30 years like that,” said Pitte. “We must change our ways.”
The government hopes that his view will be reflected in a big parliamentary majority for the government today. “Without it,” warned Fillon, “what the French decided [in the presidential election] on May 6 will not be translatable into facts.”
His first 30 days
Sarkozy has:
- Drawn up reform bills to relax the 35-hour week, lower taxes and improve education
- Toured Europe promoting a “mini treaty” to replace the European Union constitution rejected by French voters
- Held talks with Al Gore, former US vice-president, and Bono, the rock star, on global warming
- Campaigned for his party’s expected victory in parliamentary elections starting today
- Attended his first G8 summit
- Announced plans for a Paris conference to settle the conflict in Darfur
Fascinating. Best wishes to Sarkozy in bringing reality into the situation.
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