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According to The Wall Street Journal, several prestigious French schools have begun to employ their own brand of affirmative action, echoing a larger attempt by France to �better integrate its growing minority population.�
Sciences Po, �an elite French university known for its wealthy students and high-profile government alumni,� began its modified form of affirmative action five years ago. The school recruits students from 23 partner high schools located in ZEPs, or �zones the government has designated as lacking educational and economic resources.�
In the face of decreasing birth rate, France has begun to pay more attention to its increasing immigrant population, as �Europe needs these immigrants to stay vibrant.� The state does not officially recognize minorities, claiming instead that �immigrants shed their cultures of origin when they come to France and join what the French Constitution calls the �Indivisible Republic.�� But as some minority groups are becoming increasingly marginalized, a few influential Frenchmen have begun to call for an end to the long-standing ban on �la discrimination positive� � the French expression for affirmative action.
ZEP students are exempt from Sciences Po�s challenging entrance exam but must instead complete a more accommodating admissions process comprised of a written report on a chosen topic and an oral presentation of their report before a panel of teachers from their high school. Once a student has passed both the oral exam and the baccalaureate, �the national exam all French students must pass to graduate from high school,� he is granted a decisive interview with a panel of Sciences Po professors.
Along with a less strenuous admissions process, ZEP applicants also benefit from inexpensive tuition (�5,000 a year, at the most) that �varies according to family income.� Despite the success of the program, the school remains highly polarized, as �17% of its students come from the top 2% of French households in terms of income.� ZEP students represent approximately 3% of the 6,000 students at Sciences Po, and this year�s group of 57 ZEP admits is the largest yet.
Sciences Po �argues that its program is more fair than U.S.-style affirmative action� since officially, �it is based on socioeconomics rather than race or ethnicity.� The ZEP schools are filled primarily with Arab and African immigrants, however, so the two countries� programs operate to much the same effect.
Sciences Po has inspired a few other institutions in their quests to bolster minority students. Though the French business school Essec requires the same admissions process of all applicants, in 2003 the institution �launched a program that provides special courses for disadvantaged students to prepare them for the �concours.�� Ecole Polytechnique, an elite engineering school, plans to begin a similar program in January.
The program at Sciences Po has just as many high-profile detractors as supporters. While Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, an early favorite in France�s 2007 presidential elections, has shown support for the program, current President Jacques Chirac and new Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin �have criticized it, saying they oppose basing admissions at elite universities on anything but pure merit.�
Related Links:
Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1122412...5896525,00.html Copyright 2000 & 2001 American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
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