Overview
- Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu formalized the creation of 5,000 additional undergraduate places in a letter dated 10 November to university presidents, saying funds will be provided so students can be received in satisfactory conditions.
- Of the 5,000 new places, 4,000 are earmarked for IUTs (university institutes of technology) and universities will be consulted on how those places are qualified and where they are located.
- The announcement supplements 15,000 places the government had already committed to earlier this autumn to address unequal access across certain académies.
- Student and youth organisations continue to press for a far larger expansion, calling for 250,000 new places, and some groups staged a walkout from the first Parcoursup committee meeting to press their demands.
- The government says the move links short-term capacity increases with longer-term reform and that a bill to condition private institutions' access to the Parcoursup platform will be debated in the National Assembly in the week of 14 December.