ABSTRACT
It is widely recognised among industrialised countries that educating the maximum numbers in the population to the highest level possible is a vital element in maintaining international competitiveness. Citizens too recognise that, for the individual, successfully traversing the education system to graduate level opens up the best employment and career prospects. The commitment in France to education is particularly strong among government and people alike, with François Mitterrand making education the priority of his second presidential term in office and Jacques Chirac, his successor, promising to make a referendum on educational reform the centre-piece of his domestic policies. Yet the education system is seen as a problem area, with higher education in particular considered to be in a state of crisis. The central issues which currently confront policy makers, that is, the distribution of students between the different sectors of higher education, the acute logistical and academic problems of the universities and the necessity of a shift to vocational education responding to the needs of industry, derive from the distinctive features of the French system, most particularly the rapid increase in student numbers and the diversity of the establishments which receive them.
