Highlighting Systemic Inequalities: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on French Higher Education

This chapter tackles the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on French higher education (HE), focusing on the growing differentiation between higher education institutions (HEIs). The first part reflects on the current system and investigates how the central political level (Ministry of HE), alongside the president, framed policy during the crisis. France has a highly centralised yet dynamic decision-making process: no fewer than five consecutive adaptations to the teaching system took place during 2020–2021. In the second part, responses at the meso level are analysed, considering variables such as size and funding levels to ascertain the level of (pro)reactivity and room for manoeuvre of different HEIs, including public, private, and ‘elite' sub-systems. The chapter applies the lens of public policy analysis centred on process tracing combined with classic organisational analysis. Data is drawn from both survey and qualitative datasets as well as a desktop analysis of official documents related to the frameworks in which HEI have had to operate. Finally, the chapter reflects on how contextual parameters (historical trajectories, systemic funding inequalities, the division between selective and less selective undergraduate programmes) have made some HEIs more vulnerable in the face of the crisis. It concludes by suggesting potentially lasting effects of the pandemic on the future HE landscape, critically reflecting on equity-related dimensions such as accessibility in the context of growing inequality.