Top Schools in France Pushed to Open Meritocracy – NYTimes.com
Posted: July 1, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: academia, alienation, humanities and sciences, politics, science 2 Comments »I am really worried about the apparent pattern that European universities, especially the old and elite, is becoming more and more conservative, swarmed in their own traditions and local glory.
I think, one way or the other, the university/research culture is changing. However, either I look this side of the Atlantic or the other, I do not see a shining light.
Top Schools in France Pushed to Open Meritocracy – NYTimes.com.
I’m not going to defend the Grandes Ecoles, as I agree that they are weeding people out too early, but the CNRS (which isn’t the French NSF, by the way, the US doesn’t have an equivalent) is a very productive and good system that is largely controlled by the scientists themselves. Sarkozy and his conservative cronies want to get rid of it and switch the entire scholarly community on salaries obtained by grants, most of which will be evaluated on whether or not they can be easily transformed into an economic or military advantage for France.
Here’s an illustrated narrative on the same topic (with additional opinions)
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1292
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1293