French Universities and the Challenge of Modernization

In May 1968 an explosion shook the French university system to its foundations, triggering a general strike and the gravest constitutional crisis of the Fifth Republic. The student unrest that preceded the May revolt, as well as the government reform of the universities that followed, are dramatic expressions of the theme of this conference. Democratization of student and faculty recruitment generated irresistible pressure upon the traditional structures of the French university, which had been designed to handle the training of a fairly small elite. Something had to give - either the elite structures had to be democratized or the democratic pressures had to be contained. After the explosion, the Gaullist government, under the guidance of Education Minister Edgar Faure, opted for a sweeping democratization from above - with results that are far from those originally intended. The reform engineered by Faure ushered in many changes in the French universities; but to an amazing extent the old structures and practices have survived, and what has changed is not what the Gaullists had in mind. Let us first try to view the recent unrest and reform in a larger historical perspective.