French universities are being given more powers to select their intake, in a move that observers believe could make institutions more attractive to international students and potentially lead to a more stratified, UK-style system.

Detailing reforms highlighted by higher education minister Fr¨¦d¨¦rique Vidal in a Times Higher Education interview last month, Emmanuel Macron¡¯s administration said that universities will be allowed to select which students they accept on to oversubscribed courses, replacing a lottery system described by the government as ¡°unjust¡± and ¡°dehumanising¡±.

Even for courses that are not oversubscribed, universities will be able to demand that applicants take a preparatory course in order to win a place. Under the current system, all high school graduates are guaranteed a place, irrespective of grades, leading to an undergraduate dropout rate of about 60 per cent.

Gilles Roussel, president of France¡¯s Conference of University Presidents, said that the changes were a ¡°small revolution¡± for France as ¡°they introduce a kind of selection in our system¡±, even though universities will still lack full autonomy to choose their students.

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If the reforms weed out underprepared students from the first year of undergraduate courses, they could help attract more students from abroad, he said.

¡°It should give the French licence [undergraduate degree] a new image for the French and for foreign students,¡± Professor Roussel said. Overseas students can be reassured that they will not be put into classes where students are at ¡°very different levels¡±, he added.

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Professor Roussel also hopes that the reforms will enable universities to compete with France¡¯s generously funded and highly selective grandes ¨¦³¦´Ç±ô±ð²õ for the brightest students.

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Sebastian Stride, a higher education consultant at SIRIS Academic, said that under the current system, ¡°if you¡¯re a bright French 18-year-old¡± it is seen as a social step downwards to go to a university; instead, top students generally try to win a place at a grande ¨¦³¦´Ç±ô±ð through ¡°two years of hell¡±, or they go abroad.

If research-intensive universities ¨C such as the newly reconstituted?Sorbonne University?¨C are allowed greater leeway over admission, they could attract some of these students, moving the French system in a more stratified, British direction, he said.

It is unclear whether fewer students will go to university as a result of the changes. ¡°We don¡¯t really know the effect of these reforms,¡± Professor Roussel said, as it is uncertain whether students will want to go if some have to take preparatory courses beforehand.

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Catherine Paradeise, an expert on higher education policy at the University of Paris-Est, said that the changes should shift more students into vocational education, creating a ¡°better distribution¡± of students between vocational and higher education.

Yet lecture theatres were so overcrowded, in part, because young people often saw few other options, she said. ¡°Students enter universities because of the [youth] unemployment situation,¡± she said. ¡°That explains a large part of the failure rate.¡±

Vocational education has to be improved in response, said Dr Stride, and this was likely to be next on the government¡¯s agenda.

In her THE interview, Professor Vidal emphasised efforts that would be made to improve retention. Students will still be guaranteed a place on courses that have space.

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david.matthews@timeshighereducation.com