"Why in France are there no campuses worthy of the name, no sports grounds, and another extraordinary thing: no libraries that open on Sundays?" Thus Nicolas Sarkozy on his country's sclerotic universities. For an ambitious president, these might seem modest goals. But it is a measure of the universities' dire condition that they seem revolutionary. France has 82 universities, teaching 1.5m students. All are public; none charges tuition fees; undergraduate enrolment charges are a tiny €165 ($220). All lecturers are civil servants. Universities cannot select students, who can apply only to ones near them.
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