Joining an IUT after her STMG baccalaureate was the dream of Lola, 21 years old.
Today in the 3rd year of BUT Marketing Techniques at the IUT of Sceaux, in the Paris region, the student remembers having been well supported by her main professor to fulfill her wishes on Parcoursup: “The STMG baccalaureate has a bad reputation but our teachers told us that the BUT corresponded well to our techno baccalaureate, so I was rather confident about my chances of getting a place in IUT, my first choice.
It was only after fulfilling my wishes that I learned that there were quotas for techno baccalaureates in these training courses, and in fact this was confirmed when we received the admission offers since lots of friends in general baccalaureate who had applied for the IUT of Sceaux were not taken, while I had a place.
It was in 2013, with the Fioraso law, that quotas for professional baccalaureate holders in BTS were set for the first time, followed in 2021 by the establishment of quotas for techno baccalaureate holders in BUT.
For both courses, the objective is the same: to promote access for professional and techno baccalaureates to higher education, whereas until now the majority of BTS and DUT places (which became BUT in 2021) were monopolized by general baccalaureate holders.
A shame when these short professional training courses are better adapted to the skills, particularly technical, of professional and techno baccalaureate holders, whose success rate in university licenses, conversely, does not exceed 6% for professional baccalaureates, and 20% for technology bins.
On the GOAL side, a real change
The creation of BUTs at the start of the 2021 school year was accompanied by an increase in quotas for the different series of technological baccalaureates, set at 50%.
In theory, this means that IUTs must now admit 50% of technological baccalaureate graduates in their promotions.
In practice, it is more complicated, "Today 42% of entrants to IUT come from technological series, compared to 33% in 2013", explains Martial Martin, director of the IUT of Troyes and president of the Assembly of IUT directors.
“Today 42% of IUT entrants come from technological series, compared to 33% in 2013”
Martial Martin, director of the IUT of Troyes and president of the Assembly of IUT Directors
“So it has increased quite a bit.
We even reach 46% just for the STMG series in the most sought-after PURPOSES such as marketing techniques, business and administration management, etc.
We are doing everything necessary to succeed in this challenge of integrating 50% of technology baccalaureates, by participating in Ropes of Success in high schools, by organizing meetings with teachers from technology high schools, but we are not certain that families and secondary school colleagues understood that 50% of our places were reserved for technological baccalaureate graduates.
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Also read: BTS, BUT, License, Grande Ecole... which diploma is right for you?
Thus in BUT Chemistry or Biological Engineering, Martial Martin notes that the rate of technological baccalaureate holders drops to 30 or even 25%, due to a lack of sufficient STL baccalaureate holders, “it's a shame because the opportunities are there after the BUT!
Young people think they will be paid less if they work in industry rather than in services, when it is often the opposite.”
Advantage of the situation for technological baccalaureate holders tempted by a BUT in industrial and production sectors: their chances of receiving an admission offer are real, even with a 10 or 11 general average in final year - on the other hand whatever the The future will tell what the chances of success in BUT are for a student with a rather low average.
While waiting for more technological baccalaureate holders to take advantage of this good plan, the share of general baccalaureate holders remains high in IUTs, at 55%, and that of professional baccalaureate holders remains very low, at less than 2% - quite logical for the latter, that their baccalaureate better prepares them for BTS.
On the BTS side, results are struggling
According to an IGESR report from June 2023, over the past ten years we have observed “a very slight decline in the share of general baccalaureate holders in BTS (19.7% in 2010, 16.8% in 2020), a decrease significant share of technological baccalaureate holders (from 44.7% to 29.9%) and a doubling of the share of professional baccalaureate holders.”
A sham of good news, because the progression of professional baccalaureate holders masks the decline in the share of other new baccalaureate holders, particularly technological ones - who favor BUT instead.
In addition, the STS do not apply a single quota, but variable quotas set by the rectorates, with an average of 37% - a little more in the public and a little less in the private sector, according to an IGESR report.
The share of professional baccalaureates therefore varies considerably depending on the rates set by academy, or even sometimes by high school (public or private under contract), and depending on the BTS specialties: 100% for BTS whose pool of potential students is exclusively composed of professional baccalaureates (in maintenance, for example), with a few percentages in the BTS marked on technological baccalaureates (Bioanalysis and controls or Biomedical analyses, for example).
“In the BTS in the bodywork sector, or in the wood sector, we greatly exceed our quotas!
», Underlines Dominique Pouchain, general secretary of SN2D-Unsa, the first union of works managers, and deputy director for professional and technological training in a public STS in Clichy-sous-bois.
On the other hand, for BTS in the field of electrical engineering, for example, the professional baccalaureates are in competition with the technological baccalaureates.
Read alsoBTS: the specialties most coveted by students via Parcoursup
Result: more than 10 years after the launch of quotas in BTS, the share of professional baccalaureates in BTS stagnates at around 32%, compared to 30% for techno baccalaureates, and 20% for general baccalaureates - the rest of the promotions being made up of vocational training candidates.
“The real problem we are encountering,” points out Dominique Pouchain, “is that today there are far fewer places in BTS than we had when the quota policy was put in place.”
Xavier (first name has been changed), English teacher in a public international business BTS, in Ile de France, highlights another concern: “All professional baccalaureate graduates do not necessarily have the level to succeed in BTS, and to maintain quotas we can sometimes be led to retain files for which we know that the young person will have difficulty validating their BTS”.
But he immediately hastens to point out that he regularly has “heads of the class from professional baccalaureates!”
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In other words: if there is still room for progress to ensure success for all technological and professional baccalaureate holders in BUT and BTS, thanks to quotas they have a better chance of securing a place in higher education.
A good reason for them not to censor themselves on Parcoursup, and to express their wishes in all the courses that interest them, even the most selective.