French Officials Criticize Elite Universities’ Stance on Admissions

French officials rebuked the group of small, highly selective universities known as grandes écoles for resisting a government proposal that they admit up to 30 percent of their students from poorer families. The institutions rejected setting such a goal, fearing it would lead to admissions quotas and lower academic standards. Luc Chatel, the education minister, said he found it “deeply shocking that anyone imagines that it would lower standards to call on students from underprivileged backgrounds,” the Reuters news agency reported. Valérie Pécresse, the higher-education minister, said the government would not impose quotas, “but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have ambitious objectives.”