France moves slowly toward more robust research evaluation

Senate committee and research minister’s opinions align in favour of assessment

For the past five years, French president Emmanuel Macron has pushed ahead with reforms to move French higher education and research from its traditional public service-focused approach towards the ‘research excellence’ model, in which universities compete for places in league tables.

Research evaluation is of course central to this latter model, but it has remained a largely taboo subject in France, for fear of further inflaming the passions of researchers and university staff still attached to the public service model.