Bring on tuition fees, says business think tank

French universities should introduce tuition fees of €500 for undergraduate degrees, and the government department for higher education should be split into two independent agencies, according to the Institut Montaigne.

The business-funded think tank’s report, written by mathematics professor Jean-Marc Schlenker and published on 2 April, presents a tough assessment of 15 years of higher education reform in France.

The French system “has become so complex as to be unintelligible”, Schlenker says in the report. To restore a working system, there should be closer evaluation of university departments, he advises.