France’s public research is led by CNRS, France’s public research institute. This powerful institution has laboratories in each discipline and in each public university across the country. Being a member of one of one of these is considered as the pinnacle of a professor’s career.

In this year’s annual budget, nearly €4 bn was allocated to the CNRS. This is a small amount in comparison with the over $1 bn (€900 million) Harvard spent on research in 2023 and the £945 million (€1.2 bn) spent by Oxford University, both from private and public funding.

France’s university system is struggling because of the state's tight public finances. President Macron’s initial plan was  to invest €54 billion in research by 2030. Instead, €630 million were cut from the research budget last year, including $ 100 million for the CNRS, following an already €680 million cut in 2023. In 2022, research was 2,18% of France’s GDP, its lowest level in fifteen years.

In a communiqué published following these new budget cuts, the CNRS’s scientific committee expressed “deep concern” and regretted that this decision “reflects the persistence of viewing public funding of public research as a burden rather than an investment.”

But the main issue is exactly that overreliance on public funding. French nationals pay almost no tuition fees, and while foreign students do pay some, many receive scholarships that reduce or even cancel their fees.

This situation is concerning given the sharp increase in student numbers over the past 25 years, which rose from 2.16 million in 2010 to above 2.9 million in 2023. Public universities are required to enroll all French applicants, who have a right to a spot, while universities’budgets decrease each year. This increase in student numbers is good news for the private sector, where 26.1% of students enrolled in 2024, up from 15% between 1990 and 2000.

Solutions and Contradictions

Solutions to this university crisis exist. Since 2018, several universities have been granted the right to set their own fees for certain degrees and to receive private funding—particularly engineering, economics, and law schools.

However, fee rises are regularly opposed by student unions and professors. Back in 2019, strikes by students and professors took place against this, preventing exams and lectures from taking place. 

Beyond financial issues, ideological battles over which programs should receive funding are fierce. Some professors working on sensitive topics like Islam are sometimes given no funding at all. Others use their funding to encourage people to leave X and migrate to Bluesky and Mastodon, arguing that X has become “totally biased by its oligarchic boss [Elon Musk].”

France doesn’t lack talented academics. In the past 20 years, seven Nobel  Prizes in economics, chemistry, biology, and medicine were awarded to the French. Despite this, only two French universities appeared in the Times Higher Education’s ranking of the top European Universities in 2024. 

Higher fees and new entry requirements for students are needed to save the system. However, for this to happen, a profound change in mindset among professors and students will be necessary.

Statement

French universities and research are in a seemingly unfixable  situation. Budgets for research decrease almost every year, as politicians believe it isn’t worth investing in long-term innovation because of the cost involved for France’s struggling public finances. However, few professors and students are willing to pay more for their education, or to receive more private investment, citing putting free and non-profitable research at risk. However noble these principles may be, they won’t help French universities improve their pitiful world ranking.