Instruction in French Universities

At no time in its history has the question of public in- struction in France offered so much of interest as within recent years ; at no time have the changes been so sweeping, especially as regards higher, or university instruction.We hesitate to use the word &dquo; university &dquo; instruction, for, strictly speaking, there are no such institutions as & d q u o ; univer- sities &dquo; in France.In order to understand the full significance of this fact, it is necessary to examine into the effects of the Revolution and the influence of Napoleon upon public instruction.Before the Revolution no distinction was made between secondary and higher instruction.It was all given at the university: the preparatory instruction, Latin, Greek, Literature, Philosophy, and the Elements of the Sciences, in the Faculties of Art; the professional or special instruc- tion, Theology, Law, and Medicine, in the Faculties of Theology, Law, and Medicine.By the end of the First Empire, at which period the state had assumed the task of instruction in all its degrees, the higher institutions of learn- ing may be classified as follows:(I.) Special schools, devoted to a special science, and not including any other, except such as supplemented directly this special subject.The type of this class was what to-day is known as the &dquo;2#cole Polytechnique.&dquo;The Faculties of Theology, Law, and Medicine, in spite of their names, were special schools, completely isolated from each other

Mathematics education · Political science · Sociology · Education, sociology, and vocational training · Higher Education Governance and Development · Higher Education Learning Practices · Psychology