Being forced to use clunky, poorly designed software and navigating complicated, pointless bureaucracy are two of modernity’s most widely loathed experiences. Perhaps, then, it was only a matter of time before they inspired violent street protests in France.
Parcoursup, a newish university application portal, is not the only reason hundreds of thousands of French students have taken to the streets, but it’s a prominent item in a longer list of complaints about the state of French schools. Glance at photos of the crowds, and you’re likely to see it referenced on placards. Its abolition is one of the protestors’ main demands. So why has a software tool serving a seemingly mundane purpose — facilitating applications to university programs — become such a flashpoint?
The difficulties with Parcoursup began soon after its introduction in 2018, when it was touted as a way to make university applications fairer and more transparent than the previous Admission Post-Bac (APB) system. APB was designed to make admissions more efficient — rather than applying separately to each program, students would all apply through a single portal. However, it was soon beset with problems, stemming from the fact that French university degrees are legally open to anyone who has completed the baccalauréat, a national exam taken at the end of high school that was created by Napoleon in the 19th century. In practice, the vast majority of students now pass the baccalauréat, meaning that there are often more applicants than there are places in popular programs. In those cases, APB resorted to a random lottery, which people did not like, and led to cases where students who didn’t select backup programs wound up without a university spot.
Parcoursup was supposed to fix these problems, but appears to have mainly made them worse. Students are no longer allowed to record a preference for certain programs, and universities now review each application. The universities’ selection process is opaque, and each program has its own rules. Protesters have also complained that many high schools don’t adequately prepare students for exams, diminishing their odds of acceptance into competitive programs (hard to argue with, given that France’s Ministry of Education reports that almost 10% of teaching hours in public high schools aren’t taught at all, largely due to absent teachers). In a recent survey, 77% of parents said Parcoursup caused them anxiety, and only 5% agreed it was fair.
The system has also created problems for universities, which are now inundated with applications (every applicant picks up to 10 programs) that they are expected to review. In practice, it appears that careful human review of every application is not happening, and the task is being left to algorithms. Last year, one applicant made the news by successfully applying to a university with a brownie recipe as her cover letter.
In short, France scrapped a university application system because it was viewed as opaque and unfair and replaced it with a new system that many think is… also opaque and unfair. Of course, anger over Parcoursup is just a part of broader discontent over the dysfunctional state of France’s public education system, which suffers from the already-noted high levels of teacher absenteeism, unusually long school days, overcrowded classrooms, and decrepit facilities with no air conditioning. Reasonable concerns, no doubt — though likely not ones that would inspire high school students to face down riot police and expose themselves to tear gas in many other parts of the world.
