The Guardian, February 5th
French university strikes intensify
Twenty cities across Frances see marches of lecturers and students over job
cuts and status changes Thousands of French university lecturers took to the streets today amid violent clashes as part of a growing "unlimited" strike movement against government higher education reform plans.
Lecturers and students marched in around twenty cities across the country, including Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux. In Strasbourg, police used tear gas against demonstrators (1600 according to police, 2500 according to unions), some of who threw projectiles at officers. Police occupied the steps of the university's main building.
The clash occurred during a visit by the French higher education and research minister, Valérie Pécresse. "The whole university is on strike today, there are no classes," a local professor, Hubert Whitechurch, told the daily Libération newspaper.
Teaching has stopped at several other institutions, including the three universities of Toulouse, one university in Lyon (Lyon II), and most university departments in Marseille. The unlimited strike action began on Monday but staff at one Paris university, Paris XIII, have been on strike for three weeks.
In other departments, lecturers are not returning marked papers to students. In total, an estimated 45% of classes are affected across the country, with unions claiming that more than one in two lecturers are not working.
Strikers are protesting against 200 job cuts planned for this year, a change to their professional status that would grant more powers to university presidents over their staff's careers, and a reform to the way lectures, across all sectors, are trained.
Traditionally, career advancement in French universities is half decided by a national higher education council that is independent from individual heads of universities, and half by universities themselves. The reforms say that all promotions should be decided by university presidents. In addition, the amount of time a lecturer shares between research and teaching is also decided at the national level. But under the proposals, it is decided by individual heads of universities.
"We are profoundly angry with what's going on," says Stéphane Tassel from the National Union of Higher Education (Snesup), the main union representing higher education professionals. "It's like coping with a disease. We went through denial and despair, now we're angry."
Concerning the job cuts, Tassel said this was the first time in at least 15 years that job cuts are taking place. "It's unprecedented," he said. Speaking about the reforms concerning university teachers' status, Tassel said too much power was granted to university presidents. "They can dictate how many hours we teach or do research, and who gets promoted. This goes against the principle of collegiality we have been following."
Another contested reform concerns the way lecturers across all sectors are trained. Under the new plans, they will need to complete a masters at university, instead of attending a specialised training institute.
"Universities are supposed to take charge of lecturer training this month, but nobody knows how it is supposed to be working," said Tassel, adding that the movement is spreading fast. "We can't keep up with the number of local decisions reaching us at the moment. And colleagues who don't usually go on strike do."
But the government appears to be steadfast. "The reforms are necessary to improve the way French universities work," Pécresse told French radio this morning. She has previously argued that reforms are necessary to improve the competitiveness of French universities, which are lagging behind internationally.
"I deplore the fact that students are not getting their grades back. They should not be the victims of this strike," she said, adding that she would work closely with university presidents to explain how the change to lecturers' status would work in practice.
Today's industrial action is the latest in a long-running campaign of demonstrations among French education professionals. Just last week, thousands of primary and secondary school teachers took to the streets during a national strike to protest against job cuts and wide-ranging school reforms.
Industrial action is expected to continue in higher education, with unlimited strikes carrying on and a national demonstration scheduled in Paris next Tuesday.
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