Why students like me
abhor these French protests

By Clémentine Gallot in Paris

Published: 07 April 2006

To the outside world, the name of the Sorbonne is synonymous with academic excellence and prestige. But to those of us who, like me, have to study there, the reality is sickeningly different.

In the historic Latin Quarter buildings, you're lucky if you can find a chair to sit on during lectures, let alone a computer to write essays.

Doors to tutors' offices remain firmly shut for most of the academic year. It's not uncommon to have to take an exam without a desk to write on. One of my tutors has resorted to taking seminars in the Luxembourg gardens.

To make matters worse, for the past month I have had no teaching whatsoever, despite the fact I'm a third year philosophy student and have important exams approaching. As soon as the protests against the CPE (Contrat Première Embauche) youth jobs law began last month, our classrooms were taken over by students and, for the first time since 1968, the Sorbonne has been occupied day and night by protesters campaigning for change.

More than half of France's 84 universities have been blocked off. My university is constantly surrounded by riot police and a metal barrier to protect our venerable institution. Which is all well and good, unless you're a student who actually wants to study.

We don't know when the wall will come down. There are rumours that exams could be postponed until later in the year, in which case, my studies may never be completed. The students protesting against the jobs law have picked the wrong battle - and certainly the wrong way to fight it. I'm not against demonstrations. But I just don't see how blocking access to our universities in support of such a weak attempt at reform as the CPE will help make the changes that the system so badly needs.

The attitude of the state towards its young people and their education, its abysmal lack of funding for the university system, is revolting. French universities are given even less money by the state than secondary schools. In a speech last Friday, President Chirac said the country's universities were "places of excellence". Well, M. Chirac, you only get back what you put in. And when I look around me and see decrepit lecture theatres overflowing with students scribbling notes on their knees, this kind of " excellence" is difficult to distinguish from abject mediocrity.

Difficult too to see how students are supposed to pay their way through university with the paltry amount of money they receive from the state. True, registration fees are minimal (€140 [£100] per year), in keeping with the idea that French education is a public service which should be free and open to everyone. But loans are rare, scholarships highly prized but few and far between. Students are expected to live at home and depend upon their parents. There is, other than for the privileged few, no other option.

I'm just not convinced it's worth it anymore. When I started at the Sorbonne I believed that anyone should be able to attend university. In France, as long as you have the bac (A-level equivalent) you are entitled to a place. But now I've seen the result of the selection-free system - disproportionate teacher:student ratios, soaring drop-out rates - I've changed my mind.

When politicians talk about youth unemployment, they should ask themselves why does France need 65,000 psychology students - a quarter of Europe's total student number in that subject? What use is training to become a sports teacher when 45,000 other people graduate with the same degree and there are only 400 job openings per year?

The protests of the past few weeks, while I disagree with their tactics, have crystallised the anger and fear that is gripping young people at the very age when they should be making plans and building futures. I went to university with high hopes. But it will take much more than a half-hearted attempt like the CPE to give us back some confidence.

I leave next term to study abroad. I've had enough of France and its peculiar brand of "excellence".

[Clementine Gallot, 22, is a third year philosophy student from Paris.]