French Higher Education Policy Since 1968

The university policy led by governments is an uneven compromise between governments and administrations on one side, movements or field oppositions on the other side which would like to become hegemonic. It led to the slow conversion to autonomy of universities, to the professionalization of the curricula, to the promotion of European standards despite the traditional dualism of the French higher education institutions The incrased dualism, born from history, slowed down the democratization of the student population despite the growth of mass universities.