France

Despite alignment with EU’s strategies, disparities persist, because integration of international PhDs into the domestic labor market involves not only research and development but also migration policies.

France launched a funding program in 2010 dedicated to ensuring the emergence of five to 10 French universities at the top of international rankings. This initial goal changed overtime to embrace a larger set of institutions and objectives.

The COVID-19 crisis has challenged the French higher education and research system. The government must now engage in sound reforms to make the system sustainable in the long run.

In order to enhance the competitiveness of the sector at the global level, the French government has steered the system through structural policy processes aimed at consolidating it and overcoming the traditional divide between universities and grandes écoles.