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Public education is popular: 65,000 additional registrations in 2015. Today, 63% of students are enrolled at the University, which is more than 1.5 million out of 2.5 million students, marking an increase of 2.8% compared to 2014.
This enthusiasm cannot be explained by an increase in the number of high school graduates (which decreased by 0.1% in 2015), but rather by an attraction to the University which has become popular among high school graduates up to the now essential master’s degree, or by passing exams for the prestigious schools that increasingly admit students through parallel admissions. Additionally, the figures from the latest ministerial survey have been reassuring: 90% of university master’s graduates are employed.
This gives a certain confidence, if not optimism, about the future. Furthermore, for the first time, the recent higher education law has set a strategy for the next 10 years, providing a guideline for the stakeholders involved and setting objectives and direction.
Having participated in drafting the document that served as the basis for this law, the new rector of the Academy of Nice and chancellor of the Universities of Nice and Toulon, and former President of the University of Avignon, Emmanuel Ethis knows what he is talking about: “Globalization is the world and the world is changing and will change even more rapidly. Knowledge can no longer be acquired once and for all but must adapt to changes. Only acceptance of a knowledge society with ongoing training can give our youth the keys to their future.”
His recommendation is summed up in two figures: “To remain competitive, French higher education must reach 20,000 doctoral candidates per year; today we are at 10,000”.
No need for comments to gauge the effort still required.
With these 28,000 students, 20% of whom are foreigners—says President Frédérique Vidal—the UNS confirms its attractiveness and presents several centers of excellence.
In fact, much progress is needed if we consider that in the Shanghai ranking (which is not the Gospel but remains a recognized international benchmark), the UNS is ranked around the 500th position.
The application of the Nice university center, combining university and great schools, if accepted by the Ministry, should make a significant contribution in this direction.
“Our objective is to promote research to be recognized as a high-performing university internationally and to foster entrepreneurship among our students by supporting incubators and working conditions: to date, 11% of local start-ups originate from academics.
Indeed, how can one imagine Silicon Valley without Stanford and Berkeley? We just need to follow the good examples.
