“It’s all so different to studying in France”

French students at a new term meeting. Photo: Gunthert (CC)

Flesh & Stone’s Michael Cosgrove contributed to this article in the French national daily, Le Figaro, by education journalist Anne-Diandra Louarn. Despite flagging economies, participation in study abroad programs continues to rise. The Institute of International Education says that more than three million students are being educated outside their home countries today and that the number will exceed eight million by 2025.

The following is an authorized translation of an article appearing in Le Figaro. The original version is available here.

Internet members of Le Figaro recount their foreign student experiences acquired via the student exchange programme Erasmus (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), and compare the French university system to those of other countries.

The Erasmus exchange programme has recently suffered a drop in numbers and although there is general agreement on the personal enrichment which the programme can bring, some seem less enthusiastic concerning the quality of the teaching they received.

“On a human level Erasmus is beneficial, but on the academic level students lose a little ground. The subjects taught are often out of our context and professors are over-indulgent towards “tourist students” admits cedric73 who, upon his return to France, fears that he may have to re-do his university year to get back up to scratch.

In Alma mater’s view on the other hand, “Each individual is in charge of his own destiny as an Erasmus student, and the benefit you get out of it depends above all on your motivation. I left in 1992 for a year of law studies in Great Britain and I can confirm that we got through a lot of work and that I sat my exams in the same conditions and on the same programme content as the ‘local’ students.”

Same thing for Mozzer, who passed all his exams with mentions. “It’s completely baffling. I wasn’t accepted for a DEA (a French university further study option) when I got back to France. I came up against prejudiced attitudes and French professors suggested that I redo a master in France. Today though I’m doing better than many of my friends who stayed in France at that time. I tell myself that my efforts finally paid off.”

A university system which embodies the opposite of “Franco-French” customs.

Like Duje for example, who explains that he “..discovered other ways of doing things and was liberated from deeply ingrained Franco-French habits,” some people agree that they found an education system which was totally new to French students.

That is why it is important to acclimatise oneself to the renowned ‘culture shock’ in order to optimise one’s chances of succeeding and gaining a maximum of benefit from the experience. “Life on a campus of 19,000 students, like those they have in America, is really something to experience. It’s all so different to studying in France. We have a lot to learn from the American university system” says Mexica8494, who also spent a term in Mexico during her studies at a business school.

She adds: “What I like about that type of campus is the diversity of options available. Even though you may be doing very specific studies you can adapt your work by using tailor-made modules. So each student can have a different profile within a general standard area of study.”

Fab UK even goes so far as regretting that she didn’t do all her university studies abroad. “If I’d known earlier about the quality of teaching in England or the United States I would have taken out a long-term loan of €30,000 ($44,000) to be able to go and do my studies over there!”

Dk302-50-0000001 got back to France with a shock: “I began a DESS (a specialist studies diploma) where we were asked, just like at school, to sign a presence sheet. We spent our days copying board lessons which are already very well presented in books! I had the impression that I was in reverse gear” she remembers.

She says that she was able to study “In a different way and with a lot of confidence” and that she appreciated “The proximity of professors, most of whom are professionals doing a real job, which is the opposite of our ‘conference masters!’ I often availed myself of their knowledge during revision because they gave us their mobile phone numbers, that which would be unthinkable here in France.”

A theme echoed by Mexica8494. “Students are much closer to succeeding because they work in a structured framework.” She says that the system even extends to the social sphere. “Numerous student associations participate in day-to-day university life. There are always stands set up which promote those associations: Miss Campus, food and restaurant-linked, sport etcetera.”

“Burn your books!”

For Michael – alias L’anglais on Le Figaro – who teaches English in a business school in Lyon, “It’s time that the intelligentsia stopped being content with no more than historical facts and that they started realising that the world is changing and it won’t wait for France. Universities represent the future of a country and of oneself, and not a method for learning the past just to be able to pat yourself on the back afterwards.” He deplores that French students are less well prepared for the world of work whereas “Anglo-Saxons consider applied research to be much more important than theoretical research alone. They want to earn money with their knowledge and their work in university, and as a result are often picked up by businesses and companies.”

Convinced by the Anglo-Saxon university system, Michael outlines an exmple of the proactive methods which in his opinion make all the difference. “In literature, Anglo-Saxons are all but invited to burn their books, because the idea isn’t to imitate past greats like Zola or Maupassant, but to create new styles and methods of expression. In their minds, culture should be invented now, today. It’s not about going to Mass in honour of past literary culture.”

(Avec l’aimable autorisation du Figaro – With the kind permission of Le Figaro)