A talk with Richard Descoings, head of Sciences Po in Paris: Europe is losing out in global competition among universities.

AuthorRiche, Pascal
PositionGlobalization

Sciences Po (officially L'Institut des Etudes Politiques) has a unique place in higher education in France. It offers a more advanced, intensive program than other French universities, but is less demanding and easier on admissions than the "grandes ecoles" (the specialized, elite schools at the pinnacle of France's educational system). Its alumni include numerous French political leaders, including the three most recent presidents of France. Sciences Po graduates also head many of France's largest companies. Its enrollment is currently 6,700 (including 2,200 foreign students).

Academia throughout Europe was dismayed in mid-2007 when the Shanghai Jiao Tong University published its global ratings list, Academic Ranking of World Universities, and only two European universities figured among the top 20. The survey's methodology met challenges (for example, the relatively small size of European universities was not taken into account). But the findings, which evaluate both teaching and research, seemed to confirm Europe's poor showing in previous rankings since 2004. This time again, U.S. universities swept the field with 17 out of the 20, and a single Japanese institution made the list in twentieth place. The two Europeans were Oxford and Cambridge, both British. Continental Europe was shut out: No German university, no Italian university, no French university made it into the top 20. A once-prestigious set of institutions--universities in France and the rest of Europe--has slipped badly downhill in global performance.

This pattern of stagnation and decline in higher education is an alarm bell for European educators and policy-makers. But what kind of changes would make a difference? To find out, I sat down with one of the most outspoken and active proponents of change--Richard Descoings. He has headed for more than a decade now France's prestigious Institute for Political Studies, better known as Sciences Po, and has tested educational policy-reforms on his own institution. He has also publicly advocated radical and sweeping changes in the entire French system of higher education and is credited with helping convince French President Nicolas Sarkozy to launch broad-based reforms at the start of his presidential term in mid-2007.

Just ahead of the Shanghai report, the government introduced legislation to give more individual autonomy to universities in the highly centralized French system. This measure, strongly urged by Descoings, fell short of some radical reformers' demands for a system of competitive selection instead of its current guarantee of a university place for every high school graduate. But such radical change would be branded anti-democratic in France, where state-run universities are supposed to offer equal opportunities to all young people. (There are no private universities to offer competition, but France has a score of elite, specialized grandes ecoles--tiny universities with highly competitive entrance policies.) In dealing with the broad system of state universities, Sarkozy presented the autonomy measure as the first step in a series of efforts to modernize and improve the overall sector. It will be an uphill battle: calls for university reform over the years since the student revolts in 1968 have caused a great deal of public hand-wringing in France without any visible improvements in the situation. (Similar stagnation seems to prevail in neighboring European countries, which rank even lower in the Shanghai ratings.)

Why is the problem so bad in Europe? Speaking about France as an example, Descoings has a complex answer, starting with his view that any attempt to launch a "grand reform" or "revolutionary initiative" is doomed because there are so many constituencies that would react hostilely both in the education system and in political parties. He explains that the only way to succeed is to focus on change in stages, starting with the move to autonomy, then moving on to programs of aid for students so that they can cope with a new degree of flexibility in the system and then with other step-by-step changes.

His recipes for modernization are not always ones bandied about as coming from the American model--often by people who are actually familiar with the complexities and scale of the U.S. system. Descoing's analysis starts...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT