French
College Tries To Diversify French
College Tries To Diversify
Monday March 26 2:44 PM ET
By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer
PARIS (AP) - One of France's most prestigious colleges announced Monday that it will ease admissions requirements for some disadvantaged students, stirring an impassioned debate about how to diversify the nation's top schools. The Institut d'etudes politiques - better known as Sciences Po - is considered a training ground for France's political, media and administrative elite. Alumni include President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, as well as many members of the Cabinet.
But the student body at Sciences Po, like at most prestigious schools here, is not representative of France's socio-economic diversity. About 80 percent of Sciences Po students are the children of professionals, while only 1 percent come from working-class backgrounds. As at other top schools in France, acceptance at Sciences Po primarily hinges on a rigorous entrance exam that students in poor neighborhoods have difficulty preparing for.
Only 10 percent of applicants are accepted; the rest generally enter the state university system, a less prestigious alternative. On Monday, Sciences Po's administrative board voted to waive the exam for some underprivileged candidates, requiring them to submit a portfolio and undergo a rigorous interview instead. By setting up partnerships with seven secondary schools, Sciences Po director Richard Descoings, who launched the proposal, hopes the school will be able to admit about 50 underprivileged students a year for its entering class of 400.
The change is one of the most radical alterations in years in France's regimented college admissions system, sometimes criticized for perpetuating class barriers. The new policy immediately drew comparisons to affirmative action in the United States. ``Criticisms, which have come as much from the left as from the right ... have focused on the fear that an American-style system of 'positive discrimination' would arrive in France,'' said a commentary in Le Figaro newspaper.
Sciences Po's proposal does not directly address the question of race, but many of the new students will likely be minorities or the children of immigrants. ``We think we can diversify our recruitment by diversifying our application methods,'' said Descoings, who has worked to build Sciences Po's reputation internationally by promoting exchange programs. Opening the school to more social classes is the next step - and Descoings hopes other schools take on the challenge.
French Education Minister Jack Lang told Le Monde newspaper that he supports the new policy and pledged to take steps to open the doors of France's elite higher education system to the underprivileged. ``I will do everything so that this project forces people to think and stirs up reaction and emulation,'' Lang said, adding he hoped to come up with financial incentives for schools that admit high schoolers from troubled neighborhoods.
The policy has polarized the student body at Sciences Po, a campus hidden away amid the chic boutiques of the Saint-Germain neighborhood on the Left Bank. Some, like Abdoulaye Dia, 22, who grew up in Senegal and in a tough Paris suburb, say the reform is a way of tackling the larger problem of segregation in French society. Others, like Eric Justice, 24, think it is a futile attempt to help students when they are already too old to be helped. ``If we are reforming Sciences Po because we cannot reform our high schools, that's a serious problem,'' he said.
News and Announcements | AAD Home Page