Its objective was to liberalize the British economy to make it more efficient

At the time when the France seeks to improve the functioning of its University system, it is not unnecessary to lay his eyes on what are its neighbors. The case of the British system is particularly interesting because it has suffered in recent years of profound transformations: very elitist it has become much more democratic.

The British University system is to halfway between the French State and the Liberal American system. United Kingdom, academic institutions are under the authority of the State (with one exception) and funded largely by the. But unlike the France, where control and financing are exercised directly by a Department for the British organization of guardianship is parastatal, which avoids direct political intervention. The primary mission of this organization is to allocate public money between different universities.

The University system in the United Kingdom is selective since secondary education. From the Terminal, high school students who want to continue their education after high school choose, after a long period of investigation and reflection, five universities and the material they wish to study. The file that contains both the notes from the third, the estimates for the results of the Bachelor, a letter of motivation of the candidate and an assessment of skills by the principal, is sent to an organization which takes care of the distribution to universities. From these data, they make their choices, often by adding an individual interview on campus. Through this somewhat bureaucratic process, problems of information and orientation of the students are mostly resolved. A small percentage of students fails after the first year in University; just redirect (although they have the opportunity); the vast majority gets the licence within three years, and 83 are today a job three years after their graduation. Naturally, this selective system has long confirmed a hierarchy of British universities, Oxford and Cambridge coming largely in mind.

But this system, remained highly selective to the 1980s, with less than 15 of a class of age access to higher education, is deeply democratized since then to become a mass system. The instigator of this change was Margaret Thatcher who had the belief that unions up to the public service through the liberal professions, all the actors in the economic and social game needed to be freed from the stifling opposition. Its objective was to liberalize the British economy to make it more efficient.

By applying different levers subsidies, the increase in the salaries of the teachers-researchers and to electorally based on the lower middle class who were the major beneficiaries of the reform, Margaret Thatcher demanded of the universities as they open their doors to a higher percentage of the age class. At the time, this elitist system was spending per student than any other OECD member countries, but this was mostly in the upper echelons of the middle classes who had superior luxury, actually free education. The reforms undertaken by Margaret Thatcher, pursued by her successor John Major and then, from 1997, Tony Blair, made the percentage of entrants in the superior 42 with the objective to reach 50 in the very near future (percent identical to the one that set the France).

The financing of universities has not followed by proportionately the increase in the number of students. But successive Governments have demanded that, despite the passage of an elitist system to a system of mass, there is no decrease in quality in the two main missions of the University: research and education. To do this, they sought more rigorous evaluations, firstly of the quantity and quality of research performed in universities, and then gradually the quality of education provided and these "outputs" in terms of failure rate, value education, employability of graduates, etc. Gradually, the assessment has become habitual and regular daily life of the British University system, directly affecting its rate of funding by the State and giving rise each year in May-June in a ranking informal British universities in the newspapers (the "Times" and the "Guardian" including broadcasting them on the Web), according to a variety of criteria.

To supplement this funding, the Blair Government, creating a beautiful political outcry, allowed universities to increase fees, which this fall will increase from 1,000 to 3,000 pounds (4,400 euros). In doing so, he hopes to fill part of the underfunding of the universities found since a quarter of a century too without the State. It also intends to further empowering universities by the financial pressure of the student-client.

From an elitist system to a system of mass in a quarter century, successive British Governments have changed, not without difficulty, their university system in the hope of more fit to the challenges of the knowledge society. The France prepares to revamp his University The evolution of the foreign university systems may provide trails to follow, knowing that no model will be exports turnkey.