L’université, une chance pour la France by Louis Vogel (review)

VOGEL, LOUIS. L’université, une chance pour la France. Paris: PUF, 2010. ISBN 978-2-1305826 -8. Pp. 93. 10 a. President of the University Paris II-Panthéon-Assas, President since 2010 of the Conférence des Présidents d’universités, Louis Vogel herein offers suggestions for improving conditions in the university system of France. The President of Paris IV-Sorbonne, Jean-Robert Pitte, published Jeunes, on vous ment! reconstruire l’université (Fayard, 2006) in which he called for selective admissions in many disciplines and also for substantially higher tuition and even for the possibility of the privatization of the university system. He subsequently lost in his bid for reelection as President of the Sorbonne. University presidents who present their views on transforming the French university system do so at their peril! Vogel begins his brief and concise work with a litany of the problems facing the university: dilapidated buildings in dire need of renovation, unmotivated students rejected from the selective sector of higher education, professors distressed by low pay and poor working conditions, and resistance to reform. At the same time, he applauds parts of the recent Loi sur la liberté et la responsabilité des universités (LRU) of 2007 which will provide much more funding. He also criticizes the government for failing to discuss provisions of the law sufficiently in advance with faculty and for diminishing collegiality in the university by granting too much power to university presidents. Vogel calls in particular for bringing the grandes écoles into the university; no longer should the brightest students in France be outside the university system. Declaring that students choose to enroll in the grandes écoles for the social status that they confer, not for the education they receive, Vogel characterizes the teaching found there as “un type d’enseignement inadapté aux défis de la compétition internationale” (49) given the relative absence of research and “transversalité” necessary in today’s international competition. He also advocates bringing the institutes of research, including the Centre national de recherche scientifique, into the university system; the CNRS should become a funding agency working with university laboratories similar to the NIH or NSF, rather than a home for researchers often separate from the university . Vogel, as Pitte, argues for a sliding scale of tuition based on family income , yet, unlike Pitte, he argues against any form of selective admission to the university, stating that France has a lower percentage of university-educated persons in the population compared to other advanced nations. Vogel’s most interesting proposals relate to the teaching and pedagogy in the university. The tradition of a professor lecturing to an amphitheater full of students cannot continue to be the foundation of university teaching; such lecture courses should be distributed online to students before class and small groups should have interactive discussion based on the lecture. The cours magistral is totally outdated in his opinion. “Les études sont tristes en France, et il est vital que cela change” (74). He advocates delaying disciplinary concentration until the Masters level. French students do not have enough general culture courses during the licence: “La transmission prématurée de savoirs très spécialisés, peu attrayante pour les étudiants, est généralement peu efficace” (72). Vogel would reduce the high failure rate among first-year students through better orientation and better support services for those most in need. He is enthusiastic for regrouping universities into the PRES, Pôles de recherche et d’enseignement supérieur. As an example, Paris II-Panthéon-Assas, Paris IVSorbonne , and Paris VI-Pierre et Marie Curie have joined forces to form Sorbonne Universités. These universities will undoubtedly have a more respectable showing 576 FRENCH REVIEW 85.3 in international rankings since publications from all three universities will henceforth be attributed to Sorbonne Universités. Vogel remains quite optimistic in the possibilities of renovating the French university system, given his experiences at Paris II-Assas and the major increase of financial resources provided by the Loi LRU. Davidson College (NC) Homer Sutton WILSON, SARAH. The Visual World of French Theory: Figurations. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-16281-3. Pp...