[Continued from last week]
Challenge #3: Cleansing the French Private Education Forest
A third significant issue can be perceived in the regulatory deficit affecting the private education sector. Until recently, French students would find themselves in a quandary, caught between under-resourced public universities (as discussed above) and elitist ‘Grandes Ecoles‘ (e.g. Polytechnique, HEC, Centrale Paris, ESSEC). Filling this void are private operators offering professionalising courses, often with limited oversight and minimal regulation. Indeed, the French law, dating back to 1875, states that “higher education is free” and any French citizen is free to set up a higher education institution, provided they submit an opening form to the Ministry of Education.
Moreover, the work-study system, adopted partially or completely by many schools, allows students to have their studies fully funded by the state and a ‘host company’, which trains them in an internship for 2 or 3 days per week. This extremely favorable context has attracted a plethora of investment funds, to such an extent that some media have described the sector as an eldorado. The French website ES France has indeed listed at least 176 private universities as of 2023. No wonder that Galileo Global Education, one of the world leaders in private higher education industry, with an estimated annual turnover in excess of €1bn, has largely built its power on a vast network of (well-managed) French schools.
However, increased quantity does not necessarily guarantee quality. The French Ministry of Education mediator has registered a surge of complaints, up 346% since 2017, mainly about diploma confusion and quality of service, a damning statistic that underscores the regulatory failure. For instance, many students often realize after completing their 3-year programme that their ‘Bachelor’ is actually not officially recognized by the State, and does not automatically grant them the right to apply for a Masters degree. Unfortunately, the solutions proposed by the mediator are, for the most part, more curative than preventive, mainly consisting of improving access to the mediator, whereas a true effort to clarify, communicate, and deeply clean up the situation seems necessary.
This problem is all the more pressing as a large number of French students currently find themselves without an assignment to Bachelor or Master studies for the back-to-school season due to malfunctions in the centralized allocation systems ‘Parcoursup‘ (for Bachelor students) and ‘Monmaster‘ (for Master students). In a panic, some of them are then tempted to deal with the most pressing matter by enrolling in the first institution that will accept them, regardless of its reputation and seriousness.
Lastly, the regulatory deficit in the private sector is intrinsically linked to both the funding crisis and the skills gap. The under-funding of public universities pushes students towards private institutions, which, due to a lack of stringent regulations, may offer programs that fail to align with job market demands. Hence, these three challenges, far from being isolated issues, feed into each other in a vicious cycle that undermines the effectiveness of the higher education system.
Navigating Forward: State Intervention and Innovation
Given these challenges, what should be the path forward?
States have undoubtedly a fundamental role in ensuring access to high-quality education. Today, we can consider that public authorities have largely abandoned the field of detailed inspection and certification of schools to private entities. However, is not there an apparent paradox, or even a risk of conflicts of interest, in having private entities certify the private sector? Furthermore, such education must not only be affordable but also align with the professional aspirations of individuals and the evolving needs of the economy – without obliterating the regulatory power of the market, we could envision here that states play a more significant role by defining needs and directing more investments towards the most critical areas of education.
Private institutions can also play a part, but their operations must be better regulated to ensure quality and equity. And yet, striking the right balance between quality and profitability in private education has proven elusive. Many private institutions are structured as foundations, limiting the extraction of dividends. Others, like French business school EM Lyon, have nonetheless decided to go the opposite way and open their originally public capital to private shareholders. If the private sector’s role is not outright eliminated, it must be carefully controlled to ensure the quality of education is not compromised for profit.
The curriculum also warrants innovative thinking. A shift towards skill-based learning and lifelong education offers a compelling alternative. Initial education could be shorter and more focused on the basics of specific roles. Subsequent, regular upskilling and reskilling should be encouraged, mirroring the reality that the skills we learn at age 20 might not be as relevant at age 35, and likely obsolete by age 50.
The advent of educational technology offers us tools and methodologies to facilitate this change. One could imagine micro-credentials validated by existing and universally accepted credit frameworks, such as the ECTS in Europe. The modes of delivery, too, have diversified, with options ranging from virtual classrooms to hybrid environments and augmented reality.
Finally, we must acknowledge that managing an educational institution, either public or private, is a true corporate management job and requires a specific skillset that, by definition, scholars may have not been taught. Therefore, it is worth considering whether professional management techniques could be employed in the running of these schools, without compromising their commitment to academic and pedagogical excellence.
The triple failure of our higher education system, tied to the three challenges listed above, is hard to deny. Yet, within this crisis lies an opportunity for comprehensive reform. By implementing robust regulatory structures, embracing new modern forms of learning and investing appropriately in education, we can rectify these failures. We have a responsibility to ensure our education system evolves in tandem with our dynamic global landscape. Through such reforms, we can create an educational framework that not only addresses today’s challenges but also anticipates those of the future, truly serving the needs of our modern world.