France

• Governmental membership
  France has been a Governmental Member of EQAR since February 2008.

  Map: EHEA countries by governmental membership

• General information on higher education

  There are three main categories (in terms of numbers) of higher education institutions (HEIs) in France: public universities, the « Grandes Écoles » (such as prestigious schools of engineering, or business and management), and schools of art and architecture. The « Grandes Écoles » are either public or private HEIs that are typically smaller in size compared to universities.

  All legislative and regulatory provisions relating to the French educational system are incorporated in a single reference document, the education code (see below weblink to Code de l'éducation - in French).

• National external quality assurance requirements

   

  • Evaluations of higher education institutions
    are carried out every 5 years.

  • Review of disciplinary ‘fields’
    are carried out every 5 years.

  • Evaluation of sites using a ‘top-down approach’
    newly introduced in 2017.

  • Evaluation of doctoral schools
    are carried out every 5 years.

• EHEA key commitment

  Fully aligned with the ESG

  A fully functioning quality assurance system is in operation nationwide, in which all higher education institutions are subject to regular external quality assurance by an agency that has successfully demonstrated compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA (ESG) through registration on EQAR

  Map: implementation of the EHEA key commitment

• Cross-border quality assurance

  Recognising foreign agencies based on their own framework/requirements

  • Eligibility requirements for foreign agencies: N/A

  • Conditions for the agencies’ work (e.g. criteria to be used): criteria and procedures for external quality assurance must be validated by the High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES).

  • Recognition of reviews carried out by foreign agencies: HCERES checks the external quality assurance activity, whether it corresponds to the national qualifications framework and whether the foreign quality assurance has effectively involved students in the review.

  Map: recognition of cross-border quality assurance

• European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes

  European Approach available to some higher education institutions or only under specific conditions

  The European Approach could be used subject to the general conditions for recognising QA results of EQAR-registered agencies, as described above.

  Map: availability of the European Approach for QA of Joint Programmes

• Permalink
  https://data.deqar.eu/country/60
• Further information

  • Code de la recherche, Article L114-3-1 (in French)

  • Ministry responsible for higher education

  • ENIC NARIC

  • France - European Higher Education Area

Registered agencies operating in France