France: The Move toward Distance Education in the University Sector

Overview & Synopsis

France is one of the most modern countries in the world and is a leading force in Europe. A highly literate and well-educated society, France's education statistics for 2003 show 12.1 million French children in primary and secondary education and 2.2 million students in tertiary education. The concept of education as a market commodity--long since prevalent in the world of distance education--is ill-received in university circles in France. The innate reluctance throughout French universities to adopt the concept of education as a market commodity--with its intrinsic value--has put the brakes on any significant progress in getting substantial distance programs online. In this article, the author discusses France's move toward distance education in the university sector and describes how higher education in France copes with the advent of distance education. The author first presents briefly the path leading to higher education. By its very nature, the author argues that distance education should appeal to the highly transmissive concept of education that abounds in France. Distance education notoriously allows, in its simplest forms, the processing and packaging of knowledge, enabling the learner access to self-manageable chunks of knowledge. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure and 1 note.)