French Higher Education Research Articles

Specialised langages in French higher education : towards a transdisciplinary practice

Specialised langages in French higher education : towards a transdisciplinary practice

“I just need a little more support”: A thematic analysis of autistic students’ experience of university in France

BackgroundWhilst little is known about the experience and needs of autistic students in France, limited research has explored the experiences of autistic students in French higher education. The current study sought to fill this gap in the literature using a qualitative research design to ask: how do autistic students experience higher education in France? MethodSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 autistic students (8 female, 2 male & 5 ‘other’). ResultsThematic analysis identified four themes: Searching for belonging, Autism identity and disclosure, Managing anxiety and fatigue, and Working with others. The analysis describes the complex journey that participants faced when accessing and completing higher education in France. Whilst the journey was often characterized by intense anxiety and fatigue, the experience of university could also facilitate access to new academic interests, and the opportunity to connect with likeminded individuals perhaps for the first time. ConclusionsResults from the current study can contribute to the development of policy and practice that aims to better support autistic students in higher education. Of note, autistic students highlighted their elevated risk of drop-out owing to anxiety and fatigue caused by: difficulties planning and managing workload, sensorial overwhelm and administrative stress. Participants therefore highlighted the need for proactive personalized support and the need for supportive peer relationships.

Multiple binds and forbidden pleasures: Writing as poaching at French universities

Our contribution aims at providing a return on experience by describing and theorizing the tactics we developed to poach time, space, and resources in order to write. A series of neoliberal measures in French higher education during the last 20 years shape the context, and have consequences for the political and material economies of scholarly writing. We use de Certeau's concept of poaching, because the strategies that our institutions deploy exert immense pressure on our ordinary scholarly life. Consequently, writing economies have to resort to poaching tactics. We present some of the devices and fixes we have developed in this regard in terms of our teaching, supervision, and research activities.

Evaluation and Merit-Based Increase in Academia: A Case Study in the First Person

This article provides a reflexive account of the process of defining and implementing a mechanism to evaluate a group of academics in a French higher education institution. The situation is a rather unusual case for France, as the assessed academics are not civil servants but are employed by their university and this evaluation leads to merit-based salary increases. To improve and implement this strategy was one of the author’s tasks, when she was vice-president for research at the institution in this case. The article looks at this experience retrospectively, emphasizing three issues of particular relevance in the context of discussions about valuation studies and management proposed in this symposium: (1) the decision to distinguish between different types of profiles and thus categorize, or to apply the same criteria to all; (2) the concrete forms of commensuration to be developed in order to be able to evaluate and rank individuals from different disciplines; (3) the quantification of qualitative appreciation, i.e. their transformation into merit-based salary increases.

New Demographics in French Higher Education: From Non-Traditional Students to Recent Changes at the Institutions Level

Cet article revient sur l’expression « nouveaux publics étudiants », popularisée dans le contexte français à la suite de la seconde massification scolaire (1985-1995) pour caractériser l’apparition d’une population étudiante moins dotée à la fois socialement et scolairement. Or, cette expression est utilisée depuis plusieurs décennies maintenant pour évoquer ces publics inscrits à l’université française, sans pour autant être remise en question. À travers une recherche articulant les recensions de cette notion dans la presse, les discours institutionnels, la littérature grise et les travaux scientifiques, avec des analyses sur plusieurs bases de données (enquête Conditions de vie de l’OVE, bases Admission Post-Bac 2016 et Parcoursup 2019), nous montrons tout d’abord que l’expression est fréquemment utilisée, notamment en période de réformes, pour désigner les étudiant·es non titulaires d’un baccalauréat général. Dans un second temps, le recours aux données permet de mettre en évidence une augmentation importante des effectifs étudiants depuis le début des années 2010, conséquence de l’accroissement du nombre de bachelier·es professionnel·les conjugué au boom démographique du début des années 2000 : il paraît alors pertinent de parler de troisième massification scolaire. Ces étudiant·es s’inscrivent par ailleurs davantage dans les licences de sciences, par rapport à celles de lettres et sciences humaines. L’analyse des caractéristiques sociales et scolaires des publics permet de montrer que cette augmentation des néo-entrant·es dans l’enseignement supérieur ne s’accompagne pas d’une plus grande diversité sociale. En revanche, la comparaison de la répartition des publics étudiants au sein des universités franciliennes en 2016 et en 2019 met en évidence une segmentation scolaire accrue entre les établissements de premier cycle, laquelle creuse les inégalités déjà présentes dans l’enseignement supérieur.

Some Impacts of France and Us Education on the Higher Education System in South Vietnam (1956-1975)

In 1954, America supported Ngo Dinh Diem to establish in South Vietnam the US henchman government with the name of the Republic of Vietnam. The US had made efforts to aid the government of the Republic of Vietnam to strengthen its military, economic and political strength as well as invest in educational development, including higher education to solve the problem of human resource training to serve the “regime” and conduct research on practical issues of social life in South Vietnam to serve American goals. One of the salient features of higher education in South Vietnam is the influence of two trends, French and American education. In the years of 1956-1964, higher education in South Vietnam was heavily influenced by French higher education in terms of system structure, content, training programs and methodologies. Since 1965, the practical values and pragmatism of American higher education have been shaped and become obvious in the higher education model of the Republic of Vietnam. From clarifying the factors affecting the formation of higher education in South Vietnam, the article focuses on explaining some influences of French and American education in geoeducation in South Vietnam on the aspect of system structure. At the same time, the article also gives comments and evaluations on this issue.

BHL and the Pandemic: An accelerator of digital advances and transformation

Committed to the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) since 2016, the National Natural History Museum (MNHN) library encountered opportunities and new challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. The origins of MNHN date back to 1635, with the foundation of a royal garden for medicinal and teaching purposes, by King Louis XIII. It became the National Natural History Museum in 1793 during the French Revolution. The MNHN collections today include about seventy million specimens. These collections constitute a global archive and a major research infrastructure. Being a very important center of research and teaching, the institution groups together several entities at thirteen different locations. It is deeply committed to preserving biodiversity and to sharing knowledge with the public through its galleries, botanical gardens, zoos and libraries. The library, consisting of a main library and several specialized libraries, is one of the world’s largest natural history libraries. The collection contains more than two million documents of all kinds: printed and electronic books and periodicals; manuscripts and archives; maps, drawings, photographs and art collections. The library takes part in the French higher education libraries network and is associated with the French national library, which offers many opportunities for collaboration at a national level. The MNHN library launched its first digitization program twenty years ago, beginning with the academic publications the MNHN has been releasing since 1802 and including the publications of the related learned societies. A second program devoted to taxonomic documentation began in 2014. It is a research-driven digitization program built in collaboration with the MNHN researchers. A third program shares the treasures of the library, e.g., precious books, manuscripts and archives; iconography (such as the famous velum collection), scientific objects or artworks. The MNHN digital library is harvested by Gallica, the digital library of the French national library. After participating in the BHL-Europe project from 2009 to 2012, the MNHN library became a BHL Member in 2016 and started uploading content in September 2017. The complete collection of MNHN academic publications from 1802 to 2000 is now available on BHL. The publications of the learned societies related to the MNHN are to be the library’s next contribution. During the first lockdown, from March to May 2020, librarians in charge of content uploading to BHL were able to pursue this task full-time, which increased the production. The last BHL-Europe files were loaded during this period of time. More than 100,000 pages were added in 2020. As the production increased, so did the museum's outreach in 2020, by more than 70%, both in number of visitors and in number of pages viewed. It seems that the MNHN library is now better identified as the French access point to BHL, both by learned societies and by researchers who ask for information or for help. But beyond an increased production and a better outreach, the pandemic also provided new tasks for remote workers. The first lockdown was a very difficult time, especially for people who had no remote work and felt deprived of their professional identity. So progressively new tasks were established for people for whom no remote tasks were yet defined. Among these new activities, a workflow for the creation of article-level metadata was set up with the help of Roderic Page (University of Glasgow, Scotland). Thanks to this work, users can easily search and browse individual articles within several MNHN publications, such as Adansonia. The pandemic turned out to be an accelerator of digital awareness and transformation, not only at the management level, but more widely for the whole library staff as well. By providing new remote tasks, BHL reduced inequalities within the library team and offered new opportunities. This greater involvement also strengthened the sense of belonging to BHL, which is definitely not only a resource but also a community, helping us get through this difficult period. Our goal now is to continue to perpetuate these projects. The MNHN library also intends to capitalize on all this work in its own digital library, by assigning digital object identifiers (DOI). This work on articles is indeed a driver for the evolution of the information systems. The Museum is currently redesigning its whole IT infrastructure for collections, helping the library be part of a larger movement. The objectives of this new system are to better connect library collections and naturalist collections and to face the challenge of interoperability in the European and international ecosystem in which the MNHN and BHL participates.

Integration of Science, Technology, and Islamic Values to Enhance Expected Learning Outcomes in French Higher Education

Learning strategies like integrating Islamic values into learning can be applied to improve learning outcomes. Integrating Islamic values into learning science and technology provides opportunities for students to integrate science and technology with concepts and experiences in real life as Muslims so that they can feel that their learning is meaningful. This study aims to investigate the effect of learning science and technology that is integrated with Islamic values on the expected learning outcomes (ELO) of students. The learning material covers the basic material of science and technology. The population included lecturers and second-year students of the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) Bourges France. Data were analysed using the Revised Ones Assignment Method. The results show that learning science and technology integrated with Islamic values has a significant effect on the expected learning outcomes of students. To achieve this, a minimum cost incurred by universities in France of 38 Euros was spent for six lecturers. They were assigned to ensure that students could explain education and its various terms (ELO1), the basis and scope of Islamic Education (ELO2), the objectives of Islamic Education (ELO3), Islamic Education methods (ELO4), Islamic Education material (ELO5), and Islamic Education evaluation (ELO6).

Moving with the times: new developments in languages in French higher education contexts

Since the turn of the century, the increasing internationalisation of French higher education has been felt in research and teaching across a broad range of disciplines. The challenges and opportunities affect different sectors of foreign language (FL) education, including modern foreign language (MFL) studies, languages for specific purposes (LSP) and FL certification. This paper offers a review of recent developments in these three areas in France and other European countries, before examining a key difference in French higher education (HE), that is, the schism between second language acquisition (SLA) and language didactics (didactique des langues, DDL). A historical overview of developments in applied linguistics is followed by a panorama of the French language education research community today. The last section of the paper presents three new research networks taking an interdisciplinary perspective on SLA and FL education offering ways to bring together different interests within an expanded understanding of applied linguistics and opening up promising avenues for future collaboration.

What employability for higher education students?

ABSTRACT The Bologna process has contributed to redefining the concept of employability in higher education policies. In parallel, the professionalisation movement of French higher education has become more pronounced, notably through the development of work placements within the university curricula. In this article, we propose to re-examine the definition of employability of the ‘dominant’ discourse which is strongly centred on a competency-based approach and individualisation. We highlight the importance of having a broader definition of employability by integrating subjective dimension of employability and students' representations of the world of work. Based on an original survey of 804 students enrolled in the 3rd year in a French university, we construct a typology of different student profiles according to their perceptions of employability and of the labour market. Then, by models of multivariate regressions, we analyse how previous academic success, the socio-economic environment or the fields of study are likely to explain the different representations of employability. Finally, we seek to determine which student profiles are likely to benefit from higher education professionalisation, particularly through the mobilisation of the work placement during their course.

Information Systems Values: A Study of the Intranet in Three French Higher Education Institutions

Evaluation of performance of the Information System (IS) function has long been a concern of senior management in organisations. The IS function can impact competitive advantage which is why executives regularly look for evidence of returns on IT investments. The paper reports on a study which investigated how patrimonial value (inherent or actual quality of hardware, software and know‑how) and use value (contribution to the business) influence the success and organisational impact of an intranet. This paper proposes a set of principles for the conduct and implementation of analysis of these two intangible values of IS function. Research was conducted in three field studies of business and engineering schools in France. The data collected in questionnaires were analysed using the PLS structural equation method. This research provides theoretical contributions with a model giving a deeper comprehension of patrimonial value and use value of information systems, as well as explaining the relationships between these two values, success and organisational impact.

Academic excellence through scholarly research and publications

In the present academic world, excellence is often defined, proved and traded by using the level – both quantitative and qualitative – of scholarly research and publications realized by the staff of higher education institutions. This vision is grounded into the North American perception of academic quality, which was willingly adopted and applied by the top-ranking institutions, consequently becoming standard currency in today’s globalized academic marketplace.
 Although this vision has undisputable merits – especially in what concerns the capacity to clearly measure academic quality by using the number and ranking of scholarly publications, it may not always be adopted and recognized as the most desirable yardstick of organizational excellence by some stakeholders of higher education institutions. To investigate the relationship between academic excellence and scholarly research and publications, from the perspective of various stakeholder groups, we initiated in May 2018 a research project centered around the evolving research strategy of Montpellier Business School (MBS), located in the south of France.
 Founded in 1897, in the last 15 years MBS has known an impressive growth in the number of students and professors. Presently accredited by both the French higher education bodies, and by international institutions (AACSB, EPAS, AMBA), MBS has followed a distinctive strategy that led to a position of leader in the French market of apprentice students – students that follow their studies while working in (and being paid by) companies. In parallel, to achieve the quality standards required by national and – especially – international accreditations, the school introduced an ambitious program of increasing the number and quality of academic publications. At present, although academic quality is holistically defined and measured using three indicators (i.e., pedagogical quality, research quality, and general service), the evaluation of professors’ contribution is skewed towards research excellence.
 We collected primary data through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with a sample of 20 people, from each of the following categories of stakeholders: students, professors, companies. To avoid “politically correct answers” the discussions took place in informal settings, without revealing the aim of the project. The answers and the notes regarding the “non-verbal” behavior displayed by interviewees were written down immediately after the discussion, and then manually coded by the researcher, using open and axial coding techniques.
 The results indicate, as expected, that the perception of stakeholders regarding this topic depends on their specific interests and profiles. Although, in principle, all stakeholders outlined the importance of scholarly research and publications for knowledge creation, professional evolution, and theoretical understanding, from a practical perspective, many interviewees – especially company representatives and students – deplored the strong focus on theoretical research that has little relevance for their professional development and applications. Among some thought-provoking findings is the opinion that a good researcher is often a poor teacher, in direct relation to the level of his/her publications’ ranking, and that scholarly research and publication increasingly functions as a closed hierarchical system that has lost touch with the practical questions and needs of company managers and students.

Pragmatics as a Unifying Element for Foreign Language Instruction in French Higher Education

Extreme heterogeneity within foreign language instruction in French higher education has led to calls to find common elements to increase coherence. Whereas debates about course content have often emphasized the importance of specificity, the presence of mixed disciplinary groups has complicated the widespread adoption of specialized teaching. We suggest that pragmatics has potential to serve as a common element because it encompasses the study of communicative action both within and outside professional communities and can thus be emphasized in any class, regardless of its degree of specificity. While pragmatic elements are fundamental to contemporary teaching approaches, we argue that these manifestations have not kept up with evolutions in interlanguage pragmatics. In order to show this, we problematize the notion of appropriateness as described in the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR), comparing it with the way that the notion has been treated in contemporary interlanguage pragmatics. Finally, we provide examples of how developments in pragmatics regarding appropriateness have been integrated into both specialized and non-specialized teaching.

Projet d’innovation en faveur de la réussite des primo-entrants dans l’Enseignement Supérieur français

Cet article propose une réflexion sur la conduite d’une recherche-action relative à la mise en oeuvre d’un projet d’innovation en faveur de la réussite des primo-entrants dans l’Enseignement Supérieur français, et plus particulièrement au niveau d’une faculté des Sciences de l’Education d’une université française. Dans un contexte politico-éducatif où des ajustements pédagogiques viennent prolonger des dispositifs peu efficaces, il s’agit d’interroger l’élaboration d’un projet d’innovation pédagogique et ses conditions d’expérimentation pour rendre compte des conditions auxquelles il peut soutenir la réussite des étudiant.e.s. Sachant que ce dispositif expérimental est sous-tendu par une démarche pédagogique par projets, les auteurs s’attachent à montrer que la corrélation entre des perspectives méthodologiques et pédagogiques portées par la diversité, l’innovation et le projet, est déterminante pour produire de la transformation des pratiques pédagogiques, en même temps que du rapport aux savoirs entretenu par les acteurs de la communauté universitaire. Enfin, leur démonstration s’attache à analyser comment innovation pédagogique et réussite universitaire sont portées par un changement de paradigme d’accompagnement et d’évaluation dans lequel l’équipe pédagogique tiendra compte de l’évolution des apprentissages tout autant que de la réalisation des travaux attestant de l’ensemble des savoirs mobilisés et produits tant par un mode d’écriture collective, que de manière individuelle. *** Projeto de inovação para o engajamento de alunos iniciantes no Ensino Superior francês ***Este artigo propõe uma reflexão sobre a condução de uma pesquisa-ação relativa à implementação de um projeto de inovação para o sucesso dos estudantes de primeiro ingresso no ensino superior francês e, mais particularmente, de uma faculdade de Ciências da Educação de uma Universidade francesa. Em um contexto político-educacional em que ajustes pedagógicos são usados para prolongar mecanismos ineficientes, questionase o desenvolvimento de um projeto pedagógico de inovação e suas condições experimentais para explicar as condições a que pode apoiar sucesso estudantil. Sabendo que este sistema experimental é sustentado por uma abordagem pedagógica baseada em projetos, os autores procuram mostrar que a correlação entre perspectivas metodológicas e pedagógicas trazidas pela diversidade, inovação e o projeto, é decisiva para produzir a transformação das práticas pedagógicas, bem como a relação com o conhecimento mantido pelos atores da comunidade universitária. Finalmente, sua demonstração se concentra em analisar como a inovação pedagógica e o sucesso acadêmico são conduzidos por uma mudança de paradigma de apoio e avaliação, na qual a equipe de professores levará em conta a evolução da aprendizagem, bem como a realização de trabalho atestando todo o conhecimento mobilizado e produzido tanto por um método de escrita coletiva, quanto individualmente.Palavras-chave: inovação educacional; Sucesso de estudantes de primeiro ingresso; Projeto experimental; Educação Superior francesa.

Training for English-Medium Instruction in French Higher Education: Keeping Pronunciation in Focus

English-Medium Instruction (EMI) is spreading in French higher education and this paper argues that appropriate support for teachers willing to teach their subject in English should focus on both language and content, and on the pedagogical specificities of combining the two. More specifically, I argue that the pronunciation component of any such training must go beyond improving a teacher’s intelligibility. Training in the specificities of spoken English – for both teachers and students, as interchangeable speakers and listeners – should aim to improve two things: attitudes toward variation of spoken language and awareness of the cognitive impact of foreign-accented speech (FAS) (speech which exhibits acoustic features from a speaker’s mother tongue(s)). In this paper, I start by describing pronunciation as a subject in English language teacher training in the English-speaking world and second language pronunciation as an international research field. This is followed by a brief description of EMI teacher training in France and the presentation of a few key findings of research into the social and cognitive impact of FAS. I then outline what is involved for both listeners and speakers, if we want to modify their attitudes to spoken language variation and to improve their cognitive comfort in processing FAS. Example training exercises are outlined, and in the conclusion a greater role is advocated for English language teachers within the internationalisation of French higher education.

Constructing Lecturers’ Language Identities through EMI Training

Within French Higher Education the use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) impacts on lecturers’ language identities and professional development. This ethnographic case study explored fifteen French-speaking lecturers’ language identity through an EMI workshop held at an Ecole des Mines engineering school in France in 2017. The main research questions therefore focused on how the participants positioned themselves in terms of competence, how they defined themselves in relation to their multilingual identities and how they would present themselves as EMI lecturers in the future. The in situ position of the ethnographer-trainer enabled her to collect data based on written and visual documents produced by the participants during the workshop. The participants were also asked to self-assess their level of English competence and to provide written feedback on the workshop by completing a questionnaire. The results show that introducing the participants to the concepts of ELF (English as a lingua franca), and more current definitions of bilingualism broadened their views on the English language itself. The workshop helped them to feel better prepared to present themselves as EMI lecturers and to teach their academic disciplines in English.

Working in Higher Education in France Today: A Specific Challenge for Women

By 2017, French higher education had undergone a dramatic restructuration following the Bologna process twenty years earlier which impact all the European universities (Rüegg, 2010), and the implementation of the French LRU in 2007 (Stavrou, 2017). Some studies examined this new model’s effect on university academics through international or european comparative approaches (Musselin, 2008 ; Tiechler, Höhle, 2013). A decade after the French LRU, our particular focus concerns the activity of women with children like in others organizations (Bercot, 2014). The associate professors have to overcome in a very competitive context where the time management is a real challenge as the 3 coordinators at different levels in the faculty point it out. At first, an extensive survey (1409 returned questionnaires) shows that women are significantly more concern than men by these contraints. Then, in a qualitative approach, some 28 biographical interviews identify the different strategies women find.

An ambitious 5-year honors program in French universities: CMI-FIGURE

In this paper, we will describe the Cursus Master en Ingénierie (CMI) program, as well as the Formation à l’InGénierie par des Universités de REcherche (FIGURE) university network, and analyze its development and place in the French higher education context. Overseen by the FIGURE university network since 2012, CMI is a 5-year academic program designed for the most ambitious students in systems engineering. In the fall of 2017, 107 CMI programs recruited first-year students in 28 French universities. Key features of the frame of reference established by the FIGURE network are selection of students based on high school records and interviews, strong link with research from the beginning, 20% additional coursework compared to the supporting bachelors and masters, at least 25% of ECTS credits in applied learning situations, development of self-assessment skills and a compulsory international mobility. Accreditation of the university is granted by the network for 5 years. After completing a CMI program the students receive a master's degree from their home university and a national certificate co-delivered by the university and the network.

The system of higher education quality evaluation in France: history and modernity

The features of the contemporary higher education system of France have been considered in the article. The types of higher education institutions in France and their peculiarities in the context of development tendencies have been studied and analyzed. The specific features of doctoral studies in France have been studied. The historical peculiarities of the quality evaluation system in the French higher education and its contemporary state have been highlighted.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN FRANCE: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

The article deals with the peculiarities of historical development and modern state of higher education in France. The periods of higher education development of France are determined and the complex and multi-level system of French higher education is considered. The importance of education for the strategy of national development of the country and civilization is emphasized. The importance of the study of the historical development of the university education in France has been substantiated. The stages of education development at the universities of France are outlined and features are considered. each of these stages. The types of higher education institutions in France and their peculiarities in the context of development tendencies are investigated. The present stage of the development of the system of French university education and the peculiarities of structural transformations is considered. The article describes the duality between the French higher education institutions and research centers, as well as the duality between educational institutions and educational programs. The peculiarities of functioning of universities, “big schools" and private institutions of higher education are studied. There is a strong centralized presence and the role of the state in the education of France, in particular in the organization of the educational process and in the financing of education, as well as in defining the fundamental principles of the educational process. The article focuses on the achievements of the French system of higher education and its uniqueness. The role and place of large schools in the system of higher education in France are highlighted. The leading elite schools and universities are mentioned, as well as the conditions for joining them. Attention was paid to the almost equal quality of education in the capital and in the province. Attention is drawn to the national character of the French higher education.