Universities in budget struggle

A group of 14 universities is facing unsustainable budget situations after struggling in 2016, Le Figaro has reported.

The newspaper reported on 5 June that six institutions have found themselves in a situation that could leave them facing real difficulties in the short term: the University of Limoges, the University of Orléans, the University Pau and Pays de l’Adour, the University of Reims Champagne-Ardennes, Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse III) and the University of Southern Brittany. Another eight face problems in the medium term. These include the Lille University of Science and Technology (Lille 1) and Pantheon-Sorbonne University (Paris 1).

Gilles Roussel, president of France’s association of university presidents, the CPU, blamed the situation on insufficient funding for higher education since 2011 and on the expectation that institutions take on more students.