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CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN FRANCE // Pedagogical Review. 2018. Issue 3 (21). P. 224-230

This paper studies the aspects of the higher education system in France. The country has fascinating socio cultural and educational traditions. France is a country with a humanistic, progressive, and social tradition that is characterized by the availability of education, medical care, social insurance, and public services regardless of one’s social, religious, ethnic or cultural origin. Education in France has been developing for several centuries into its modern form and has a rich history. There is a unique system of study cycles, academic degrees, and diplomas. The authors analyze a particular feature concerning the existence of two kinds of institutions of higher education–universities and higher schools–and study the types of the aforementioned. The levels of higher education are distinguished as follows: a bachelor’s degree (“Licence” degree), a master’s degree (master of the first and second year of training), and a higher doctorate. The article reveals how the humanistic, progressive, and social traditions of the country manifest themselves in higher education. The authors examine the experience from the best universities and higher elite schools of France. They point out the current issues of the practical part of higher education, which are as follows: differentiation of types of higher education institutions, lack of funding, separation of teaching and research, intensification of teaching process, etc. Likewise, the paper demonstrates that there are certain reforms aimed at resolving these problems (e.g. the Law on Higher Education and Research).

Keywords: higher education system in France, universities, higher elite schools, higher education reforms