The French system of higher education grants Evaluation and control
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Abstract
The French model of National Education, developed from the Third Republic, is based on free education and equal opportunities in access to education and culture.
“The Nation guarantees equal access for children and adults to education, training and culture. The organization of free and secular public education at all levels is a duty of the state ”thus stipulates paragraph 13 of the Preamble to the Constitution of October 27, 1946.
Higher education scholarships are a tool of education policy which aims to ensure this fundamental principle of equality. Like any public policy, it must be monitored, evaluated and steered, in particular within the framework of the new financial constitution of August 1, 2001, called the Organic Law relating to Finance Laws (I.G.A.E.N.R., 2007).
In 2008, 1.48 billion euros were spent on scholarships, of which more than 89% were scholarships on social criteria intended to benefit around 487,000 students (Marini, 2007). This figure represents around a quarter of students enrolled in higher education in France for the year 2007-2008 (M.E.S.R., 2009). If all the grants are taken into account, this percentage is around 30%.
However, several reports have raised a lack of tools and literature on the evaluation of the scholarship allocation system, a report from the 2006 parliamentary mission to the Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research highlights in these terms the lack of monitoring and evaluation tools: "One of the findings of this report was the contrast between the considerable amount allocated to this policy with, paradoxically, such little monitoring and control".
This work aims precisely to provide elements of evaluation and monitoring of this policy, by proposing an evaluation of the system of allocation of scholarships according to two axes - equity and efficiency - as well as an index making it possible to follow over time the level of the aid allocated and the extent of its coverage.
These analyzes and results are based on statistical studies carried out on the annual databases of student applicants for grants between 1998 and 2007, provided by the Department of Evaluation, Forecasting and Performance (DEPP) and on the data triennial surveys on “Living conditions of students” collected by the Observatory of student life (OVE).
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References
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