Striking French Students Face the Possibility of a Lost Academic Year

As the end of the academic year approaches, university students across France are facing the possibility that, after 14 weeks of strikes and demonstrations that have compromised operations in many of the country’s universities, the entire academic year might have to be forfeited.

According to the BBC, “students and lecturers at around 20 of France’s 83 state-run universities are still on strike this week, barricading classrooms and paralyzing faculties.” The strikes began when, earlier this year, the French government announced plans to restructure the country’s university system with measures that included allowing university presidents more authority over faculty members. Protests by lecturers and then students quickly spread, bringing campuses across the country to a standstill.

The actions have dragged on for so long that, as The Washington Post reported today, many students are “no longer entirely sure what the protests were about.”

The minister of higher education, Valérie Pécresse, “has set aside the restructuring plans for the time being, turning to the task of organizing makeup classes and rescheduling final exams,” the Post reported. “Results vary from campus to campus, leaving thousands of students in limbo.”

Even as the fate of the academic year remained unclear, there were signs this week that the government was stepping up its response to the strikes. The French daily Le Monde reported that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party was “hardening its tone against the strikers,” with a party spokesman calling for legal action to be taken against a minority of extreme-leftist protesters whose actions were “holding young people hostage” and “sacrificing their future for ideological reasons.” —Aisha Labi