2007–09 university protests in France

Since the appointment of Valérie Pécresse as French Higher Education and Research Minister, there are tensions in French higher education. Many reform plans have sparked several protest movements, including the 2009, the longest since 1968. These months long movement stressed the political climate of France, even within the ruling UMP group, and led to a questioning of the Bologna process in academic circles. A similar movement arose at the same time in Spain.

• 2.1 forms of action
• 2.2 Policy Development

Origin

The LRU law

Shortly after her appointment as Minister of Research and Higher Education Valérie Pécresse announced the beginning of a reform, which had been introduced in the election manifesto of the new President Nicolas Sarkozy: The so-called law for the freedom and responsibility of the universities ( " Liberté et Responsabilité of Universités " ), or " LRU law" should allow a radical reorganization of the French universities.

The budget of each university should no longer be granted individually by the Ministry for each department, but the university should get an overall financial package and the academic committees of the universities have a free hand to distribute this money by department and by project. Here, with the introduction of majority voting in the two classes teachers ( lecturers and professors ), the rules for the election to these bodies have been changed. The university president should take over the responsibility of staff.

The aim of the LRU law is an adjustment to the European and Anglo-Saxon standards as part of the Bologna process. By reducing bureaucracy universities more initiative should be made possible. The project also allowed the president to conclude partnership agreements with private firms, and thus to mobilize additional research funding. However, since Nicolas Sarkozy had presented a drastic reduction in public expenditure and the breakdown of civil servants positions as the basis of its financial policy, thought the opponents of the project that this law should pave the way for a neglect of the universities by the state and even for privatization. The contempt had spoken with Sarkozy in particular humanistic studies in his campaign seemed to confirm this impression, and the opposition took their strongholds on the humanistic and humanities faculties, to be feared, because of their lack of profitability largely neglected. Therefore, the opponents spoke of a " mixture of feudalism ( with the increased power of the university management ) and neo-liberalism ". The government, however, defended a "necessary modernization".

However, the opposition received a first damper, rather than the social democratic student union UNEF agreed to the bill after the introduction of a numerus clausus for the Master's programs had been abandoned. The law was passed in July in a special session of Parliament, and in August ( ie, during the parliamentary recess ) of Nicolas Sarkozy signed. In October solved in several (mainly humanities ) Unis from a protest movement to which the UNEF joined briefly, but after the announcement of an Affirmative Action Plan ("Plan Campus" ) broke.

Spring and summer 2008

The resentment began to grow again, as Valérie Pécresse announced its plan to build up the research. In France (National Centre for Scientific Research CNRS ), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique a central role in research. The CNRS has its own budget, but also working with the lecturers and professors under the " Unités Mixtes de Recherche " ( UMR, Joint Research Units) together. Despite relatively low government investment, this system was the world's sixth place in the Shanghai ranking ( the universities are listed much worse, which led to fierce critics about the impartiality and the methods of the rankings in the academic community ). The establishment of the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR, National Research Agency ), to provide scholarships for special projects and the restructuring of the CNRS in various specialized institutes, pointed to a future fragmentation of the center, and aroused fears for a further reduction of public funds, especially as the Minister promoting partnerships with the companies and the establishment of special teaching and research positions ( " Chaires d'excellence " ) suggested. The research loans that are not depended on the ANR, should also be shared with the other departments are all in one package every university: The power of the President and the mandarin seemed so confirmed, and this development led to several successes for anti- LRU lists in the elections at the higher education bodies in spring 2008. the symbol of this discontent was the defeat of the incumbent president of the ( so far rather considered as a liberal conservative) Sorbonne University ( Paris IV ), Jean -Robert Pitte. The UMP close Geography specialist was replaced by a left coalition under the leadership of his predecessor, the ( left-liberal ) Romanists Georges Molinié. During the year 2008, the successes of the anti - LRU lists multiplied.

Autumn 2008: the draft reforms on teacher training and the status of doctoral students and university teachers

In a few weeks, three reforms were introduced that made jointly break the latent crisis. All the designs had been prepared without any negotiations or discussions with representatives of the academic community.

Education Minister Xavier Darcos, who was then advised already in trouble because of a (now discontinued ) failed school reform, introduced in October, a plan that should concern the training of teachers in the schools and colleges. So far they had been accepted for a national test with a numerus clausus as civil servants, spent a year at a Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres ( IUFMs, University Institute for Teacher Education ) with numerous internships, then they were full teacher. The two tests were CAPES ( for a Bachelor or more often one years Masterstudiangang ) and the Agrégation, after one year Master's program and an additional year to prepare. The agrégés have courses in higher classes than the certifiés. The majority of high school teachers, particularly in the humanities, are former agrégés who then received his doctorate. After the reform, a " pedagogical master program" (Master Enseignement ) should be introduced. The preparation of the test should be a part of the second year, which should include internships, so that teachers could get a full point immediately after the results of the audit. The technical implementation of this plan, however, proved difficult, and the opponents stressed that there would be too many applicants to offer all internships can. The technical training would deteriorate as well, because the pedagogy hours and test preparation would be less time for the master thesis left. The graduate students who would be but failed because of the numerus clausus the test should also form " flocks of precarious teachers without status ," said the trade unionist who denounced the draft as an attack against the official status. The academic community defended itself against this bill that threatens the level of the French teacher, as Valérie Pécresse unveiled their own plans.

The two designs of higher Minister for the Status of the university teachers and the students. For the doctoral students ' general promotion contract " ( contrat doctoral unique" ) is to be introduced. Otherwise it would be impossible to do a doctorate at a French university. The high school teachers would therefore more difficulties than it is today to become lecturers. Moreover, the draft contained the possibility to force the PhD to do extra work ( such as administrative work), without other advantages, during the contract include a trial period and would make the termination of the PhD by the University President easier.

The design of the high school teacher changes the distribution between research and teaching time. So far, the equality between the two is true, but after the reform, it should be easier for the university presidents, teachers rated poor to give more lecture hours, and less research time. This assessment of the work of teachers would depend on the Bureau. With the reform of teacher training that was a second division between teaching and research.

Then there was the experience of the few colleges that should adopt the LRU status on January 1, 2009 and where the job and funding cuts provoked violent problems.

The speech of 22 January 2009 and the outbreak of the strike

On January 22, Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech for the physics researchers and recent Nobel laureate Albert Fert. He described him as an exception in the French scientific landscape, and blamed the majority of researchers who did not achieve significant results despite systematic means. He added a few derisive remarks to the researchers. This speech was seen as a provocation, and the refusal of the Minister to revise their projects, nor increased the voltage: the unions of the academic community and more clubs are called together for a strike and called on their colleagues, not a lecture directories for the educational master's degree programs before the prepare Ministry appointment on March 15.

On February 2, several general meetings were held, which decided the strike. On February 9, the opening day of the summer semester at the Sorbonne, a general meeting was held, whose unexpected success led to the opening of three classrooms for debates. Finally, the President stopped by eight universities several speeches in the famous Amphitheatre Richelieu and called for a strike, until the withdrawal of all designs and opening general negotiations on the future of universities. Georges Molinié in his speech of the " most dangerous attacks on the French educational system since the end of the Vichy regime."

Forms of action

Since February 10, every week a day of demonstrations will take place. Although the numbers of police and the unions are very different and the reports of journalists speak consistently every time tens of thousands of demonstrators. On 29 January and 19 March, researchers, teachers and students participated in the massive demonstrations of the two general strikes, gathered up to 3 million people on the street.

The lessons are strongly affected by the movement: Some teachers keep them in the public space as a form of demonstrations, others strike at all, more work normally, apart from the demonstration days. Here and there it has also come to blockages, sometimes for weeks. Some attempts to occupy places like the Sorbonne, but failed: the protesters were evicted by the police. Another form of demonstration is the accumulation of festivals, conferences, courses and alternative actions in public spaces. The most classical form is the symbolic burial of research in a symbolic place, such as the Ecole Normale Supérieure. This form is particularly common, especially in Paris III and Paris IV in the Parisian universities ( A Sorbonne - festival at the end of March for days occurred ).

The symbol of the movement is the novel The Princess of Cleves by Madame de la Fayette, a novel by the French 17th century, is considered the masterpiece of gallantry and of classicism, and the Sarkozy has repeatedly mocked by asking, for example, that this kind of reading material could cause the teller nothing, and that mere " sadists and fools " could recommend this book. On February 16, teachers and students read the novel in succession before the Panthéon. The reading lasted for 6 hours.

Political development

After a week began several UMP deputies, including the University President Daniel Fasquelle and Pécresses predecessor François Goulard, to criticize the attitude of the Minister. They wanted to rewrite the draft on the status of university teachers to end the strike. Pecresse first appointed a mediator, then she relented. This decision came too late: only small unions participated in the talks, gave themselves not satisfied with the compromise and continued their protests against the other designs instead. In the meantime, the relationship between university teachers and PhD designs and the LRU law had become clear, and the movement, even their moderate forces, now called for the abolition of the law. No part of this doctoral draft has been changed yet ( April).

Darcos he refused from his hand to change his plan. Its rugged comments contributed to the intensification of the opposition, so he finally announced one years time. The new tests will take place in June 2011. But this decision and its other resolutions on exams or placements answered only on technical issues, while the opposition contested the principle of a distinction between research and education master's degree programs, as well as the abolition of IUFMs. The movement sat thus still continue for weeks. After the Easter holidays it became clear that the government would not give up, and threatened to regard the term as zero-valent, while keeping the notes and checks for invalid. After that, it gradually came to return to the universities. The strike wave came in the various centers between 20 May and 8 June to the end. The rejection of the reforms there but in the academic community still continues, and debates and meetings will take place in the summer to discuss the forms of further action. Following the Government on 23 June Valérie Pécresse remained in office while Darcos joined the social department.

Participants in the opposition movement

The movement is led by an assembly of delegates from the various universities, the Coordination Nationale des Universités.

In this front are indeed left-wing forces, but also center - and right groupings. This width is a second property of this movement. The first is its duration. The supports of the movement are:

• The left civil servants' union FSU (Fédération Syndicale unitaire ) with their part unions SNESUP ( university teachers), SNCS (researchers ), SNASUB;
• The more liberal-conservative university teachers' union AutonomeSup;
• Qualité Française de la Science, a non-partisan association that sometimes occurs in the elections, and often described as the center of a grouping;
• The education sectors of the main confederations: CGT ( Confédération Générale du Travail, the left part union. FERC -CGT ), CFDT ( Confédération Française et Démocratique du Travail, leftish part union. SGEN -CFDT ), UNSA ( National Union of Syndicates autonomous, center ), FO ( Force Ouvrière, left);
• Clubs: Sauvons l' Université ( Save the universities, SLU ), Sauvons la Recherche ( Save the research, SLR).
• Nobel laureate Albert Fert or the French Academy of Sciences is also available at the government critics.