The French Executive has confirmed that the Parcoursup platform, which has become the epicenter of the student mobilizations shaking the country for weeks, will undergo a "significant transformation" in 2027 and will be definitively replaced in 2028. This was detailed this Monday by the Minister of Higher Education, Philippe Baptiste.
Baptiste emphasized that it is not possible to accelerate the timelines of the reform because the functioning of Parcoursup is closely linked to current legislation and any modification requires prior changes in the law. "There are several parameters of Parcoursup that can only be modified if the law itself evolves," the minister pointed out, thus justifying the announced schedule.
In the same vein, the Minister of Education, Edouard Geffray, wanted to emphasize the Government's commitment to the announced measures. "None of the decisions we make are empty promises. Everything we say will be fulfilled and respected within specific deadlines and with concrete figures," he assured, in an attempt to address the doubts of student groups.
Parcoursup has been under scrutiny for years by students and teachers, who denounce its complexity and the additional workload it generates for faculty. Its thorough review is among the main demands of students, who are calling for a comprehensive reform of the secondary education system, marked by overcrowded classrooms and schools with deteriorated infrastructures.
The new measures have been announced following a meeting between Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and various student organizations. In addition to the reform of Parcoursup, the Government has put on the table the creation of 15,000 additional places in higher education to alleviate overcrowding in schools, along with a plan for infrastructure renewal valued at 5 billion euros (1 billion allocated for the modernization of universities until 2031 and the rest in the form of loans for institutes).
The package of measures is completed with the option that student scholarships are linked to the evolution of prices, so that they "are indexed to inflation."
Student organizations have positively welcomed the concrete proposals presented by the Government to try to put an end to weeks of protests over the reform of secondary education. However, they have insisted that the mobilizations must continue, considering that the measures are still in the review phase and that, for now, there are no guarantees regarding their effective implementation or the deadlines for application.