Three weeks before the April round of voting in France's presidential elections, the Conference of University Presidents has called on all candidates to say whether they would make higher education a national priority.

The honorary chair of the CPU is Francois Fillon, higher education minister. Vice chair Bernard Dizambourg, who heads the body, said that a policy statement represented a set of basic principles for which there is unanimous support within the organisation.

The university heads oppose any "top-down" reform of higher education and are adamant that the universities remain a public sector service. "Any sort of global, authoritarian reform, imposed from above, would be absurd, meaningless and would only increase tension," said Mr Dizambourg.

The CPU also insists that teaching and research are inseparable components of the universities' role. Strongly opposing the creation of separate first and second-year colleges - a proposal in an official report which has drawn fierce criticism - they say "it is essential that first-level courses remain within the universities".

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On the equally sensitive issue of enrolment fees, the document agrees with the official report that they should be increased. However, this comes in the context of suggestions for an overhaul of student support schemes in the face of "increasing student poverty".

It argues that an increase of annual enrolment fees, spread over three years, should be matched by "a significant increase in the number and level of grants".

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It also says that student unions should be involved in decisions on these questions and that the extra cash raised should be devoted to improving teaching resources. "The state must remain the guarantor and the main financial contributor," notes the document.

On quality assessment, the statement argues that universities should carry this out themselves. The national body which has been conducting assessments of universities could then turn to assessing the universities' own quality controls, it suggests. The university heads insist on the need to protect the "national status" of university degrees and of staff.

So far only Lionel Jospin, the Socialist Party candidate and former education minister, has taken higher education to the hustings.