In the run-up to the french presidential elections, the Socialist Party is insisting it will not backtrack on the current government’s controversial overhaul of higher education. Instead the party promises more funds for academia as investment in “economic development”.

But despite widespread belief that substantially increased tuition fees are on the agenda for the next government regardless of its political hue, it remains an issue that neither the Socialist Party nor president Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) dare address head on. “I’m all for universities gaining greater autonomy,” said Socialist presidential hopeful François Hollande in April last year, referring to a reform by the right-of-centre government that sparked massive protests in 2009.

In 2007, Sarkozy completely overhauled higher education, giving public universities more autonomy and allowing them to raise funds from private sources. The reform was deeply resented and perceived as a first step towards cutting state funding for higher education. “Political parties who can’t see that academics want this reform repealed suffer from amnesia,” says Stéphane Tassel, head of the academic union SNESUP.

Hollande says he will not repeal the reform, but wants to simplify funding and give state universities real freedom by investing in higher education. But with the economic crisis hitting France hard, his party is reluctant to put a figure on its ambitious investment plan for higher education. Hollande banks on reducing tax loopholes, and on France pulling out of the recession — a risky bet given that the eurozone is still reeling from the debt crisis.

Sarkozy’s UMP is also reluctant to set out clear targets for the future. Currently, even keeping old promises is a challenge. In 2009, Sarkozy launched a loan programme to invest Euro 35 billion (Rs.234,500 crore) in the French economy, earmarking Euro 19 billion for higher education and research.

In an interview with Le Monde, Laurent Wauquiez, the minister for higher education, insisted his government is “catching up on 30 years of funding shortages for higher education”. “We have started. But to succeed, we have to continue depending on the means at the state’s disposal.”

Academics are still disappointed that neither of the two main parties has set out tangible investment targets for higher education. French state universities are underfunded — Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV) spends only about Euro 3,000 (Rs.2 lakh) per year per student, in contrast to the Euro 110,000 (Rs.73 lakh) spent on an undergraduate at Princeton University in the US, according to figures cited by the BBC in 2009. “It’s embarrassing that the parties are not displaying high ambitions for academia,” says Yves Lecointe, president of Nantes University. “But given the state of the economy we couldn’t expect much.”

The Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE), an organisation that represents elite institutions, is calling on the government to allocate an extra Euro 20 billion (Rs.134,000 crore) — 1 percent of GDP — to higher education. The CGE suggests that students should contribute tuition fees amounting to Euro 3,000 (Rs.2 lakh) after they have completed their studies. Currently, state-funded universities’ very low tuition fees, which are set by the ministry of higher education, cover only 2-3 percent of the institutions’ budgets.

In the run-up to the presidential elections in April, the issue of raising tuition fees is the elephant in the room — an explosive topic that neither the Socialists nor the UMP dare address. Lecointe says higher tuition fees are “the missing parts of the puzzle”. “If you look at all the reforms that have been introduced since 2007, conservatives clearly have tuition fees on their agenda,” he adds.

But Wauquiez denies his government is considering raising tuition fees. “In times of crisis, such a move would be unacceptable, especially when everybody is worried about their buying power,” Wauquiez told Le Monde.

(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)