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Higher education covers all studies after the baccalauréat (‘A’ level equivalent). Two systems exist side by side:
· An open system in the universities. Most students study under this system. All baccalauréat holders have the right to enter this system without any prior selection procedure. The universities offer an extremely wide range of studies;
· A selective system with a limited number of places. Admission is by competitive examination, entrance examination or application form, with an interview where appropriate. This is the system in use in the grandes écoles (top graduate schools such as the Ecole Nationale d’Administration – French Senior Civil Service School – Ecole Nationale Supérieure – national post-graduate school – and the top engineering and business schools), the instituts universitaires de technologie (IUTs – university institutes of technology) and the instituts universitaires professionnalisés (IUPs – university institutes of professional education). These establishments train mainly public-sector and private-sector senior and middle managers.

In 1999, the education ministers of 29 European countries met in Bologna to set a series of goals to harmonise the architecture of the European higher education system with a view to smoothing out the differences between the national systems and lifting the ensuing obstacles to student mobility. For the last few years, France has therefore been modernising its system to facilitate gradual careers guidance and further international student mobility by applying the three main principles of the European framework:

· The three-level BMD system: Bachelors (three years of studies)/Masters/Doctorates. France has two types of master’s degrees: a “professional master’s” and a “research master’s” designed for students who wish to go on to a doctorate.

· A European Credit Transfer System (ECTS): a credit corresponding to the student workload required to successfully complete a course module. These credits can be accumulated and transferred.

In 2006, the government made graduate employment a priority. The equal opportunities act of 31 March 2006 created a work placement charter signed by the government and both sides of industry to secure work placements by making them part of a knowledge-building pathway. This charter provides three guarantees: compulsory trainee management, a standard agreement binding on the three signatories, and assessment and monitoring systems.

A national debate on higher education and employment was launched on 25 April 2006 (see the press release) focusing on three issues:
· Guidance, information and employment;
· Making studies more work-orientated under the BMD system;
· Apprenticeships and the development of combined work/training schemes. (See the website address in the To Find out more section).

As part of this debate, a national commission chaired by Patrick Hetzel, Chief Administrative Officer of the Limoges Education Authority, submitted its final report on 24 October 2006.

At the start of the 2006 higher education year, France had 2.287 million enrolled students including 1.357 million in the universities, 113,500 in the university institutes of technology and 76,000 on preparatory courses for the top graduate schools. The teaching staff totalled 89,000 (all positions together). In 2004, the proportion of foreign students stood at 11.3% (as opposed to 7% in 1998).

University student numbers remained virtually stable compared with the previous year. 2005-2006 posted a keen interest in the medical professions (medicine, pharmaceutics and ondotology) with a 6% rise in student numbers across all degree courses. Humanities and social sciences attracted the highest number of students.

The number of students on preparatory courses for the top graduate schools has been on the increase for several years, posting 76,000 in 2006 compared with 74,790 in 2005, with 47,369 on scientific courses.

In 2004, the government allocated €9.09 billion of its budget to higher education. *Source: National Education Ministry

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Higher education in France is divided into Grandes écoles like École polytechnique and Universities. Grandes écoles are considered more prestigious than universities and their selection procedure is highly competitive. For example in France most prestigious engineering Grandes École, École polytechnique have about 12 000 candidates for 400 places.

A striking trait of French higher education, compared with other countries, is the small size and multiplicity of establishments, each specialised in a more or less broad spectrum of disciplines. A middle-sized French city, such as Grenoble or Nancy, may have 2 or 3 universities (for instance: science / sociological studies), and also a number of engineering and other specialised higher education establishments. For instance, in Paris and suburbs, there are 13 universities, none of which are specialised in one area or another, and a large number of smaller institutions which are very specialised.

It is not uncommon for graduate teaching programmes (master's degrees, the course part of PhD programmes etc.) to be operated in common by several institutions, allowing the institutions to present a larger variety of courses.

In engineering schools such as École polytechnique, it is not uncommon that a large share of the teaching staff is not made up of permanent professors, but of part-time professors hired to teach one specific point only. These part-time professors are generally hired from neighbouring universities, research institutes, or industry.

Another originality of the French higher education system is that a large share of the scientific research is not done by universities, but by research establishments such as CNRS or INSERM. In many cases, the research units of those establishments are installed inside universities (or other higher education establishments), and jointly operated by the research establishment and the university. It is also fairly common that research staff teach some graduate classes. However, this research staff will not be counted as part of the normal academic staff of the university.

These traits can cause international university rankings to underestimate French universities due to the criteria used, but however in spite of all these Times world universities ranking placed École polytechnique 10th among world universities and Professional Ranking of world universities placed École polytechnique 4th among all world universities.

Another characteristic is the low tuition costs. Since higher education is funded by the state, the fees are very low: the tuition varies from 150 € to 700 € depending on the university and the different levels of education (licence, master, doctorat). One can therefore get a Master's degree (in 5 years) for about 750-3,500 €. Additionally, students from low-income families can apply for scholarships, paying nominal sums for tuition or textbooks, and even getting a monthly stipend. The tuition in public engineering schools is comparable to universities, albeit a little higher (around 700€). However it can reach 7000 € a year for private engineering schools, and some business schools, which are all private or partially private, charge up to 12000€ a year.

Health insurance for students is free (if they get a scholarship) until the age of 25, so only the living costs and books expenses have to be added.

Primary education

Schooling in France is required and mandatory as of age 6, the first year of primary school. Many parents start sending their children earlier though, around age 3 as kindergarten classes (maternelle) are usually affiliated to a borough's primary school. Some even start earlier at age 2 in pré-maternelle classes, which are essentially daycare centres. The last year of maternelle, grande section is an important step in the educational process as it is the year in which pupils are introduced to reading.

After kindergarten, the young students move on to primary school. It is in the first year (cours préparatoire) that they will learn to write and perfect their reading skills. Much akin to other educational systems, French primary school students usually have a single teacher (or perhaps two) who instructs in many different disciplines, such as French, mathematics, natural sciences, history and geography to name a few (the latter two are seldom separated). Note that the French word for a teacher at the primary school level is professeur (previously called instituteur, or its feminine form institutrice).

Secondary education in France

"Lycée" redirects here. For other uses, see Lycée (disambiguation).
In France, secondary education is in two stages:

the collèges cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15;
the lycées (IPA: /lise/) provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between the ages of 15 and 18. Pupils are prepared for the baccalauréat (IPA: /bakalɔrea/) (baccalaureate, colloquially aka le bac). The baccalauréat degree can lead to higher education studies or directly to professional life.

The brevet is the first official diploma a pupil has to sit. It is not required in order to enter high school (lycée).
The school marks for the whole of the final year (3ème) and the year before it (4ème) are taken into account for half of the mark. However starting from 2007 only the marks from the final year (3ème) will be taken into consideration. The other half of the mark is comprised of the final exam, the brevet. Pupils are only tested on French, mathematics and history/geography, for the exam

The baccalauréat (also known as bac) is the end-of-lycée diploma students sit for in order to enter university, a classe préparatoire, or professional life. The term baccalauréat refers to the diploma and the examinations themselves. It is comparable to British A-Levels, American SATs or ACTs, the Irish Leaving Certificate, Australia's Higher School Certificate and the German Abitur.

Most students sit for the baccalauréat général which is divided into 3 streams of study, called séries. The série scientifique (S) is concerned with the natural sciences, physics or mathematics (a lot of stream exists, one of which is called série scientifique sciences de l'ingénieur (SSI), a série scientifique baccalauréat with two more specializations, génie électrique and génie mécanique. There is also the Bac STI, Sciences & industrial technologies. There also exists the option génie mécanique & the options electrotechnique), the série économique et sociale (ES) with social sciences, and the série littéraire (L) focuses on French and foreign languages and philosophy. However, these séries are not exactly specializations and every bac-possessor has the right to integrate any public university in his catchment area if this applies to the subject he wishes to apply for. Students having followed the L series do not have enough scientific knowledge from high school alone to succeed in science university courses, therefore some combinations of baccalauréats and university courses are very rare.

There is also the baccalauréat technologique and baccalauréat professionnel.

The Grandes écoles of France are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities. They are generally focused on a single subject area, such as engineering or business, have a moderate size, and are often quite selective in their admission of students. They are widely regarded as prestigious, and traditionally have produced most of France's scientists and executives.

The classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles (CPGE) is a prep course with the main goal of training students for enrollment in a Grande École ; of which the best known and prestigious are Lycée Saint-Louis, Lycée Louis-Le-Grand, Lycée Henri IV or Lycée Sainte-Geneviève for instance. Admission to the CPGE is usually based on performance during the last two years of high school, called Première and Terminale. The CPGE are located within high schools but pertain to tertiary education, which means that each student must have passed successfully their Baccalauréat (or equivalent) to be admitted in CPGE. Each CPGE receives the files of hundreds of applicants worldwide every year during April and May, and selects its new students under its own criteria (mostly excellency). A few CPGE programmes, mainly the private CPGEs (which account for 10% of CPGEs), also have an interview process or look at a student's involvement in the community.

CPGE programs have a nominal duration of two years, but the second year is sometimes repeated once, mostly in the scientific sections, where the student gets then the status of cinq demi ("five halves"), for he was only a trois demi ("three halves") during his first second year. The explanation behind those names is that the most coveted engineering school is the Ecole Polytechnique, nicknamed the X (as the mathematical unknown). In French, a student is said to integrate a school when they are allowed to enroll in it. A student is called a 3/2 if he integrates the Ecole Polytechnique between his first and second year of preparatory class since the integral of x from 1 to 2 is 3/2. The same idea is valid for "cinq demi", since the integral of x from 2 to 3 is 5/2. Students enrolled in their second second-year are also called "carrés" (squares), and a few turn to "cubes" for a third and final second-year. These terms probably stem from repeated attempts at applying to "X" (Polytechnique), yielding x2 and x3. Some ambitious professors encourage their top students to eschew admittance to other prestigious schools in order to try their hand at X one more time. .. Despite this high standard, the 30 000 students in classes préparatoires must face the fact that they won't all go to the Ecole Polytechnique. The renowned engineering schools Centrale Paris, Supélec, École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, École nationale des ponts et chaussées, École nationale supérieure des télécommunications, Supaéro or École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers , all member schools of ParisTech are also a proud goal to obtain for these students.

The oldest CPGEs are the scientific ones, which can only be accessed by scientific Bacheliers. Scientific CPGE are called MPSI ("Mathematics, Physics and Engineering Science"), PCSI ("Physics, Chemistry, and Engineering Science") or PTSI ("Physics, Technology, and Engineering Science") in the first year, MP ("Mathematics and Physics"), PSI ("Physics and Engineering Science"), PC ("Physics and Chemistry") or PT ("Physics and Technology") in the second year. The classes which especially train students for admission to the elite Écoles Normales Supérieures or Ecole Polytechnique have an "*" added to their name, e.g. MP*.

First year CPGE students are called the 'Math Sup' - or Hypotaupe - (Sup for "Classe de Mathématiques Supérieures", superior in French, meaning post-high school), and second years 'Math Spé' - or Taupe - (Spés standing for "Classe de Mathématiques Spéciales", special in French). The students of these classes are called Taupins. Both the first and second year programmes include as much as sixteen hours of mathematics teaching per week, ten hours of physics, two hours of philosophy, two to four hours of (one or two) foreign languages teaching and two to three hours of minor options: either SI, Engineering Industrial Science or Theoretical Computer Science (including some programming using the Pascal or CaML programming languages, as a practical work). With this is added several hours of homework, which can rise as much as the official hours of class. A known joke among those students is that they are becoming monks for two years. Sometimes three.

The literary and humanities CPGEs have also their own nicknames, Hypokhâgne for the first year and Khâgne for the second year. The students are called the khâgneux. These classes prepare for schools such as Écoles Normales Supérieures, Ecole des Chartes, and sometimes Sciences Po.

There are also CPGE which are focused on economics (who prepare the admission in business schools). These latter are known as "Prépa EC" and are split in two parts ("prépa EC spe mathematics" , generally for those who graduated the baccalaureat S and "prépa EC spe éco" , for those who were in the economics section in the lycée.). The most famous of those business schools are HEC School of Management, ESSEC, ESCP-EAP, EM Lyon, EDHEC, EM Grenoble and Euromed Marseille Ecole de Management which propose a Master degree and a MBA.

The students of CPGE are also matriculated in universities, and can rejoin college in case of failure of their grandes écoles ambitions or if they just do not wish to become engineers and feel not able to pass the Écoles Normales Supérieures competitive examinations. The ratio of students who failed to enter grandes écoles is low in the scientifics and economics CPGE, but high in humanities, for the only Grandes Écoles aimed in these classes are the Écoles Normales Supérieures.

The amount of work required of the students is exceptionally high. In addition to class time and homework, students spend several hours each week completing exams and 'colles' (very often written 'khôlles' to look like a Greek word, this way of writing being initially a khâgneux joke). The so called 'colles' are unique to French academic education in CPGEs. They consist of oral examinations twice a week, in math, physics, French and the foreign languages, usually English and Spanish. Students, usually in groups of three, spend an hour facing a professor alone in a room, answering questions and solving problems. In CPGE littéraires (humanities), the system of 'colles' is a bit different. They are taken every trimester in every subject. Students have one hour to prepare a mini-presentation that takes the form of a 'dissertation' (in history, philosophy, etc.) on a given topic, and that of a 'commentaire composé' (a methodologically codified commentary) in literature and foreign languages; as for the Ancient Greek or Latin, they involve a translation and a commentary. The student then has 20 minutes to present his work to the teacher, who ends the session by asking some questions on the presentation and on the corresponding topic. 'Colles' are regarded as extremely stressful, particularly due to the high standards expected by the teachers, and the subsequent harshness that may be directed at students who do not perform adequately. But they are important in as much as they prepare the students, from the very first year, to the oral part of the competitive examination, reserved to the happy few who successfully pass the written part.

Recruitment of teachers

Traditionally primary teachers were educated in Ecoles Normales and secondary teachers by the Agrégation examination. The situation has been diversified by the introduction of the lower level CAPES examination for secondary teachers and more recently by the institution of Instituts Universitaires pour la Formation des Maîtres. University teachers are recruited by special commissions. However many of the successful candidates still have the Agrégation qualification and a large number have been trained at the Ecoles Normales Supérieures.

Research in France

An integral part of the French curriculum is the emphasis on hands-on research. More than 300 doctoral programs, in collaboration with about 1,200 research centers and laboratories nationwide, prepare students for careers in their chosen fields. France’s doctoral programs have traditionally been attended by an international student community. More than 35% of PhD students in France today are foreigners.

France is one of the forerunners of scientific and technological innovation. It owes this standing to its research capacity and its many achievements in such fields as aerospace, transportation, electronics, telecommunications, chemistry, biotechnology, health and mathematics, successes attested to by the number of French winners of the Fields Medals and Nobel Prizes.

Estimated monthly living expenses:

Language requirements:

A good proficiency of French is required for the Bachelor programs. However, many Master degrees, MBA and PhD programs are conducted in English.

Semester 1: September/October to December/January

Semester 2: January/February to June

Applications for the 1st and 2nd year of Bachelor: deadline 31 January for the September intake (application forms are available at the CampusFrance office in early December of the year before the September intake)

Applications for 3rd year of Bachelor and 1st and 2nd year of Masters will open depending on each institution’s calendar. Please contact the CampusFrance Office in Singapore for more details.