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Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > JAPAMESE GOVERNMENT POLICIES IN EDUCATION,SCIENCE AND CULTURE 1990 > PART1 Chapter4 4 3

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PART 1 Issues and Perspectives ofHigher Education
Chapter 4 Higher Education in Other Countries
4 France
3 Educational Programs in Universities


Educational programs in universities comprise three levels: the first cycle (two years), the second cycle (one to two years) and the postgraduate third cycle (one year or more). Before the enactment of the Loi d'orientation de l'enseignement superieur in 1968, the first-cycle course had been concentrated on specialized education differentiated among different faculties and departments, and there had been there cognition that students had completed a general education by earning a baccalaureat. Since 1968, with a view to placing emphasis on the development of a well-balanced personality, students have been required to learn general education subjects during the first-cycle course, in addition to major and related subjects.

In order to advance to the second-cycle course, students must obtain a Diplomed'etudes universitaires generales (DEUG), which certifies the completion of a first-cycle course for a particular field of study. Students who have not succeeded in obtaining a DEUG within three years after entering the first-cycle course must withdraw from their university. To the second-cycle course are attached one-year courses leading to a degree called licence and one-year courses leading to a higher degree called maitrise. The third-cycle course requires for admission the earning of a maitrise. Thus students are subject to the evaluation of their academic achievement as they are required to obtain a particular certificate before advancing to the senior cycle of the course.

In contrast to grandes ecoles, which have limited an increase in student places, universities have admitted students with a wider range of scholastic abilities to cope with the increasing higher education age group. As a result, universities today face the serious problem that more than a half of university entrants have tended to dropout during the first-cycle course, mainly due to their poor academic achievement.

In order to help solve this problem, since 1984 various reforms have been carried out by many universities with regard to educational programs at the first cycle. They include: 1) the courses of study have been diversified and, in addition to traditional academic courses leading to a second-cycle course. there have been created new courses enabling students to prepare for employment or for transfer to some other institution offering shorter courses: and 2) in addition to traditional two-year first-cycle courses, there have been created new courses preparing students for a DEUG in three years, rather than two years.

At the second cycle, many universities have attempted to create three-year courses, which admit excellent students who have completed a first-cycle course on a competitive basis and give them instruction with teaching methods similar to those adopted in grandes ecoles. (Students who have successfully completed this three-year course will be granted a degree of magistere.)

The number of third-cycle students is approximately 160,000, accounting for 15.9% of all students enrolled in universities. There are two types of course: 1)one year courses leading to a diplome d'etudes approfondies (DEA) for students who wish to prepare doctoral dissertation in two to four years; and 2) one-year courses leading to a diplome d'etudes superieures specialisees (DESS) primarily for students who wish to gain employment.

University teachers comprise professors, assistant professors (maitres de conference) and assistants. Assistants are employed for a limited term of office. The recruitment of assistants is publicly announced in each Academie (a regional unit of educational administration), on the basis of a list of vacancies published by the Minister of National Education. The screening of candidates is made by screening committees at individual universities. Based on the results of this screening. The rector of each Acadimie decides whether each candidate should be appointed as regular assistant, or whether he or she should be appointed on probation. Assistant professors also undergo a two-year probation before they are appointed as regular staff members, while there is no probationary period for full professors.


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