merteuil101

> In my experience, a considerable chunk of the first year undergraduate programme went on teaching students who had passed A-level French the grammar that they should have known for GCSE. There is a shortage of teachers in most disciplines, but especially foreign languages. (Blame the National Curriculum again.) This means that students who left university with a not very good degree in modern languages, some of whom had a very shaky grasp of the grammar, are training to teach French/German etc and passing on their mistakes. Those of my colleagues from the same (old-fashioned?) generation as me, used to choke when they looked at their kids' homework, with the mistakes they made that were marked correct, and the correct things "corrected" wrongly by their teachers. One of these colleagues was a Parisienne, and her children had forbidden her to go through their homework correcting the teacher's work! BTW, some French schoolchildren have the same problems with French grammar.

Jill, it's been about three years now since I left HE, but back then, the case was: Yes, there are tuition fees to pay, but they are considerably lower. Around hundreds of pounds per year as opposed to thousands. If by this you mean maintenance grants, there are "bourses", but they used to be means tested and few students were eligible. They usually rely on parents and live at home. I don't know of any specific student loans system, it might exist, but parents usually foot the bill. Most stay near, or at home. For reason (2) above. One of the biggest moans from the students we sent for a period living abroad was that the halls of residence were deserted every weekend. Most residence rooms either had overseas students like them, or were only used during the week by French students whose parents were nearby, so they went home to mum and dad. So, parties were few on the ground, which didn't go down too well with British students! Elizabeth

This site has a lot of interesting points about French requirements/regulations etc. www.dossierfamilial.com

This site has a lot of interesting points about French requirements/regulations etc. www.dossierfamilial.com