Last straight line for Parcoursup, the higher education orientation platform.
This Thursday, the admission phase began: the 931,000 candidates began to receive their responses.
The epilogue for the final year students of a year shaken by the health crisis.
The Minister of Higher Education Frédérique Vidal comments on the first figures.
She also looks back on the next academic year, which she wants 100% face-to-face and mentions a “vaccine pre-entry” so that all students can be immunized before returning to the lecture hall.
This Thursday, it's time for the Parcoursup admission phase, until mid-June.
How many high school students have received a favorable response?
FRÉDÉRIQUE VIDAL.
One million one hundred and thirty thousand admissions proposals have been sent since Thursday evening to 931,000 candidates.
That is 100,000 more than last year.
Some high school students will therefore receive several.
They choose one, and thus free up places which will then be sent to others.
In total, 11.5 million wishes were made on Parcoursup: each high school student made a dozen wishes.
Again, that's two more, on average, than last year.
Let's take a concrete case: I am a high school student, but none of my wishes were accepted immediately.
What should I do ?
If we receive a “yes, if” for a wish, we can accept specific support to increase our chances of success in training.
Two other cases exist: a “pending”, if the training is not selective, or a “no”, if it is.
For high school students who have only suffered refusals in selective training, a complementary phase begins on June 16.
From there, as institutions reach the end of their call lists, they make places available to students, and they can apply again.
Last year, 1,300 high school students were still left behind.
How to avoid it?
In fact, candidates continue to be supported to find a place in higher education until mid-October.
In the end, very few go unresolved.
The goal is for everyone to have training.
The preparatory classes for the grandes écoles (CPGE) have seen a 30% increase in applications.
Why ?
It is an effect of the disinhibition of high school students on Parcoursup.
They don't have to prioritize vows anymore, so they ask for training that they never thought would be top of the pile in the past.
They dare to ask for ambitious training courses.
Do you ask the examination boards to be benevolent in their marking, as for the bac?
We will not give a diploma on the cheap, we want it.
But the crisis was still taken into account.
If, for the first time, around 50% of exams take place face-to-face via traditional written tests, 50% are organized via more flexible modalities - such as dissertations, continuous assessment, or oral examinations.
And the BTS?
They say they have been wronged because they have not been entitled to as many adjustments as the graduates ...
We made adjustments.
Going to continuous assessment - like last year, in a hurry - is complicated since thousands of BTS students come from high schools where there is no school record.
So of course, we keep the writings, but we organize, in July, an exceptional remedial session for those who have failed, without distinction.
We allow a second chance that did not exist before!
In the years to come, this second chance could be perpetuated.
The students have had a difficult year.
How will the next school year go?
The goal is a 100% face-to-face return to school.
Some school leaders have indicated that they could partly continue to use digital tools.
We will have to keep the best of this complicated year.
Self-tests were made available to teachers and schools during this exam period, and we will continue.
We also imagine that the majority of students will be vaccinated.
Exactly, what about the vaccination of students?
Will it soon be mandatory?
There will be no compulsory vaccination.
In France, we are fortunate to have capacities which allow any French person who wishes to be vaccinated at the end of the summer.
In higher institutions, we also welcome international students, we will organize vaccine pre-entry for them.
We assume that they will be subject to the rules for entry into the European Union.
But we are also working on a protocol that allows international students to be included in the campaign.
A little more than 30,000 additional students are expected this year in higher education, how can they be absorbed?
The system is robust. Nearly 500 million euros have been added since 2018 to the needs of establishments to accommodate this demographic wave. But there is a difficulty: we are sometimes confronted with problems of premises. In any case, this year, like the previous ones, we are funding institutions so that they can accommodate 25,000 additional students in the public. In particular, several thousand places have been added in the most requested courses on Parcoursup, such as nursing training institutes (Ifsi), or in licenses, we have also taken into account the needs related to the reform of medical studies with additional places in the second year. We also have a reserve of 10,000 places which allows us to support establishments in the most requested training courses.
You have also set up a platform that allows students to make free appointments with the psychologist.
Do you plan to perpetuate it?
Around 10,000 consultations have already taken place thanks to this platform, which has benefited a few thousand students.
We started using a counter system.
The idea is that the students can use it for as long as it takes.
The site will remain in place as long as it is in use.
What response do you intend to bring to the increase in the precariousness of students?
We will freeze registration fees, or even renew the system of student tutors at the start of the school year to accommodate all new baccalaureate graduates.
We have also recruited 80 psychologists and 60 additional social workers in the universities.
All of this will continue.