French University Education

[Woodhouse]

My daughter is due to spend next year in a French university. They have been given a few lectures on what to expect. They are rather perplexed!
Does anyone have children in university in France?
They have been told that all assignments must be hand written, This is the complete opposite to what is expected in UK; they are expected to word-process their assignments.
They've been told that they are expected to repeat back their lectures in an assignment, and not to research or offer ideas of their own.
My daughter has about 4 hrs of formal seminars-discussions-each week, the rest is individual research. They do so much of this. They have no 'lectures' as such.
This has brought home to me a difference between the two systems.
I can't feel that the university is wrong because they send students there every year and they must have feed-back. But I am surprised. My daughter too. She wonders what kind of year she is in for. Everything she has done over the last 2 yrs has been to develop her individual powers of understanding.
And now she is supposed to suspend that for a year?
It's part of her course, and she's looking forward to it, but I do wonder overall, she would not be happy only looking at things from one point of view, except I suppose in France all her education would have been so geared, and she wouldn't expect anything else.
I'm a bit taken aback by this, she is too.

[Mistral]

I don't have children at uni yet but most of my friends and family have been through the French system. From what they have told me, it does seem that what you're saying is true. Students are not so much expected to think for themselves but repeat back what they have been taught. Even friends doing Phd's told me this. I don't know about the handwriting or not thing, but I'll ask around. other things that surprised me were that essay forms are very rigid. (intro-thse-antithse-fin) Depending on what uni your daughter is in in the UK, she may be surprised by the size of the French univerisies. I went to a UK uni with 2,500 students all subjects included. My husband had 3,000 first year students just doing law. Tutor systems etc are rare too (probably because of the number of students)
It seems that there are lectures which are done by the uni staff but the other classes are quite often run by older students. It also seems expected to do 'other' subects i.e you are studying law but you have to do an hour of maths and of English a week as well. This will depend on whether yor daughter is in a DEUG or license class.
I spent a semester in a German university as part of my course (thank you, Erasmus) and I was never very sure what was expected of me. So I just did things as I would have done back home. I got through it. The grades counted towards my degree, but they had less weighting.

[Clarkkent]

Is your daughter doing an intercalated year during a degree course in an English university? If so, when it is appropriate it would be useful if details of her experiences and perceptions were posted on this site. There are several people on this forum whose children are working their way through the French school system and this information may be of value to them.

Before my retirement I was a lecturer in the "new" university sector in England. I noticed a small number of French and German students doing their higher education in England rather than their home countries. They said that English universities were preferable for many reasons, not least because would almost certainly graduate within three years!

[Stedman_Triples]

Hi Woodhouse

Whereabouts is your daughter going? what is her course and UK Uni

My daughter is currently at Nancy II doing her 3rd year Law with French as an ERASMUS student. Her UK uni is UEA and yes she spent the first term doing all the notes 'wrong' because no-one told her or her friends what to do, so they were all panic stricken at exam time.
As for student life, she doesnt bother to cook for herself on her floor 20/24 bedsits and the kitchen only has two electric rings one of which doesnt work, there is no fridge, the fridge that is there is full of 10 locked units which you rent. A friend does have a micro wave in her room and Jenni has a Slo cooker so they manage. There is only 1 plug in the room and nothing over 1000watts is allowed, she blew the fuses with her first kettle!! and got a severe telling off. They usually eat very well for a few euros at one of the student restaurants.

She was amazed the first day of term, all the students were up at 6am, lectures start at 8am, at Norwich you were lucky if someone got up at 11am!!

The day we left her back in Sept I wanted to say come on I'll take you home, I didnt cry when we left her at Norwich 3 years ago but it was hard leaving her all alone in France.

She joined a group whereby a local french family invite you home for a meal and she has stayed in touch with the daughter. She has had a few run ins with a few undesirables, she wants to practise her french as much as possible but if she speaks to the male students they start to get a bit ...forward and all she wants to do is practise her language.

If you like I will email you her UEA address and you can pass it on to your daughter.
Jenni has settled in very well and Nancy is a lovely city,although she is now sick of the sight of snow, and she is coming home for Easter and then after that she goes back for just another 6 weeks, so the 9months has gone very quickly really and she has made friends with all nationalities and creeds and wouldn't have changed anything.

elaine56