Abstract
Students entering the French higher education system in 1960 and since the 1990s will have undergone quite different experiences. However, so will the students entering higher education in France at the beginning of the 1960s compared to those entering towards the end of that very same decade. This is due to two main reforms, one of them culminating in the failed political revolution of May 1968.
Universities and students were not a priority for French governments until the end of the 1960s. The higher education institutions, such as the “grandes écoles” and universities, simply had to survive with little or no input from the government, “A vrai dire, ils [les universités et les étudiants] n'en avaient que faire.”1. The failed political revolution in May 1968 gave rise to form and structure to the university system. This had knock-on effects dramatically changing working conditions, aspirations and prospects of French students from the beginning of the 1960s until the present day. At the beginning of the 1960s, French university students were still “héritiers”. These are students selected from the social elite of the nation and the universities were set-up with the intent on cultivating this elite. The “héritiers” are described as “les lycéens et les étudiants qui ont reçu une éducation familiale leur donnant précocement les codes de la réussite scolaire, bénéficiant du capital culturel et d'une connaissance des codes scolaires implicites.”2. Therefore the working conditions at this particular time were fairly good as the students were all from similar backgrounds and there were not really that many students, “il y en avait 200,000 [étudiants] en 1960.”1.
