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Absence of year-end grading forces institutions to consider alternative academic requirements
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 health crisis, exam halls will remain shuttered in France—leaving universities puzzling over how to grade students for the year and select new entrants.
The cancellation of final exams at schools has proved a problem, as students wishing to apply to universities to start a higher education degree are stymied by the absence of marks. A government ordinance published on 27 March allows for extraordinary measures, such as exams being taken online, but many academics remain unconvinced that this will be enough.
A plan to push exams into June was opposed by student unions. Fage, the federation of French student unions, said that postponing the final exams of students finishing their degree into the summer would result in financial hardship for many of its members. Orlane François, president of Fage, said that “many students need to work in the summer to finance their studies”.
François also objected to the idea of remote exams taking place under video surveillance. She warned that some students lack suitable equipment or have poor internet connections.
In an interview with newspaper Le Figaro, Gilles Roussel, president of the Conference of University Presidents, raised the possibility of using “telepresence” software to ensure students taking exams remotely remained behind their computers.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the educational journey, admissions are proving a problem, with entrance exams unlikely to take place. Lockdown measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus have impacted schools widely. “Post-prépas” exams, due from 20 April, which take stock of French school students’ capabilities to enter higher education, have been postponed at least until the end of May.
Engineering schools have said they will make their own decisions on how to proceed, with options including assessment by jury or rescheduled examinations.
In a joint decision taken with the ministry of national education, the ministry responsible for primary and secondary education and the ministry of higher education announced that selective entrance exams were to be cancelled. The Conference of Grandes Ecoles, meanwhile, has decided to cancel all post-baccalaureate and post-prépas oral examinations.
In order to respond to a potentially widespread absence of marks, France’s Parcorsup online application system will be see added flexibility, including more telephone support for applicants, the government has said.
Minister for higher education and research, Frédérique Vidal, said on 24 March that the admissions process for selective institutions, primarily business schools and engineering institutions, would be changed. The traditional exams are to be replaced by an assessment of candidates’ academic records using the Parcorsup system.
The ministry of higher education and research said that would-be students using the application system this month would know whether they have been accepted after 19 May. On 3 April, the Constitutional Council upheld the use of Parcoursup despite the lack of traditional exam marks, considering the extraordinary circumstances of the coronavirus crisis.
Meanwhile, the Polytech Group, a network of 15 public sector engineering grandes écoles, said that “recruitment competitions are expected to take place between June and July, subject to changing health [crisis] conditions”, adding that a final decision would be made “in the coming days”.
A version of this article also appeared in Research Europe