French Vs. American Higher Education — A Study Abroad Perspective
Ariana King, Culture Staff Writer
It’s September 10th, 2019. After nearly a month, I still can’t believe I’m in Aix-en-Provence, a city in southern France that’s about an hour away from the Mediterranean. It’s 9:40 a.m. and I’m heading out the door, off to my first day of classes at Sciences Po Aix. As I’m trudging through the rain, bright green umbrella in hand, I wonder what life will be like here and how it will compare to UW-Madison.
To be fair, I’ve already learned a lot about the French university system. Unlike the United States, everyone who passes the baccalauréat, the equivalent of a high school diploma in the U.S., can go to university. Because French universities aren’t competitive, many seek to go to a Grand école where they must pass a rigorous, competitive academic exam in order to attend. One of these more well-known grande écoles is the school where I’m currently studying—Sciences Po Aix.
From a French perspective, life at Sciences Po Aix is quite a bit different from American universities and even other Grande écoles. According to Mathieu Favier and Jules Moure, both second-year students at Sciences Po Aix, the culture can be summed up in three words: “school, associations, and parties.”
In contrast to universities, where it’s a lot harder to meet people and socialize, Sciences Po Aix students stay with their same grade throughout the day, essentially, everyone knows each other. While this comes with many benefits, Mathieu admits that “[The social atmosphere] can definitely be toxic—it can also be a race for popularity sometimes.”
As someone coming from a Big Ten “party school” in the U.S., it was quite surprising to me that a relatively small school like Sciences Po Aix still had a vibrant party atmosphere. Ethan Smith, a senior at Indiana University (IU), echoes this sentiment—he considers Sciences Po Aix to be an even bigger party school than IU.
“A lot of student organizations will host soirée étudiants in the streets… and will do them each night of the week. At IU and UW, there’s quite a lot of partying but they’re usually at frat houses or if you go to the bars, they’re usually only busy on the weekends,” he remarks.
Strictly academically speaking, Sciences Po Aix’s structure is vastly different from American universities. Classes are each two hours long and meet only once a week. For international students, most classes are exclusively lectures and there is little interaction with professors—a complaint shared amongst both French and American students. Unlike the U.S., professors do not have office hours and some may not even share their email address with students.
The French system also requires a lot more independence than the American one. “The classes are a pivotal base,” Mathieu explains, “but [simply learning what you are taught in class] is not sufficient. If you are not looking for knowledge [independently] on the subject, you cannot hope to do great [on] the exams.”
As an American student, I can attest to this statement. For someone who likes to know what is expected of them, a system where the professor assigns no homework and simply hands out a reading list to explore independently is quite an unpleasant culture shock. However, some American students, like Ethan, enjoy learning independently and not being restricted to a set, inflexible reading list.
Yet the impersonal nature of the French system doesn’t always work well for either French or American students. For Ethan, having class once a week makes it harder to remember the material and can decrease motivation. He also finds it strange that lectures are “almost verbatim” from year to year.
This makes it easy for each grade to pass their notes onto the younger students, which he isn’t a fan of. “I like it when classes are adapted a little more each year and require a bit more critical thinking,” he elaborates.
All in all, it is clear that the French and American higher education systems are vastly different, yet it doesn’t mean either one is better. Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Sciences Po Aix all foster both a rigorous academic culture and an active social culture.
While many Americans, myself included, may struggle to thrive in the French system, it isn’t impossible. It just means we have to embrace the challenges and be open to changing our study habits to meet the expectations of one of France’s finest grande écoles.
Sources:
Favier, Matheiu. Interviewed by Ariana King. Unpublished interview. Aix-en-Provence France, October 11, 2019.
“French Universities – Higher Education in France.” French universities – Higher education in France. About-France.com, June 10, 2010.
Moure, Jules. Interviewed by Ariana King. Unpublished interview. Aix-en-Provence France, October 11, 2019.
Smith, Ethan. Interviewed by Ariana King. Unpublished interview. Aix-en-Provence France, October 13, 2019.