In 2021, Prof. Virginie Dupont, Vice-President of France Universités (the French Convention of College Presidents), known as by means of an EUA professional voice interview for an pressing reappraisal of the funding mannequin for French universities. « The speedy progress of the coed physique, » she argued, « the refurbishing of our college actual property, the altering stability between block grants and project-based funding, all name for an in-depth dialogue in regards to the framework circumstances through which universities shall be working within the coming years. »
A 12 months later, after which once more in 2023, two extra EUA publications – Allocating Core Public Funding to Universities in Europe: State of Play & Rules and the 2023 instalment of the College Autonomy Scorecard – solely served to corroborate the growing discrepancy between state funding of the French college sector and the rise of oblique prices incurred by means of an exterior switch of wage rises and pension prices.
The announcement on twenty first November that the present authorities was considering organising a redistribution mechanism that will deprive universities of a major a part of their block-funding grant has introduced issues to a head.
On the next day, after a 4-hour assembly, a delegation of some 30 college presidents spontaneously took to the streets and marched to the Ministry for Larger Schooling and Analysis in an effort to ask the Minister to rescind.
They’ve since been heard, as the federal government has put the projected levy on maintain, but for the primary time in a few years, all of the presidents of the 120-odd member establishments of France Universités have determined to place phrases into motion and declare 3 December a day of mobilisation for ‘universities at risk’.
In precise reality, 60% of them foresee that the brand new governmental measures may not solely cause them to postpone funding and hiring of employees, however would additionally compel them to shut down outlying campuses because of which college students, a few of them coming from disadvantaged rural areas, are given entry to the upper schooling system.
3 December 2024 thus marks an vital stage for French universities, but France is clearly not alone in having to face the dire penalties of heavy budgetary restrictions because the sweeping cuts not too long ago introduced by the Dutch authorities testify .
