The examination by Parliament of the government’s bill in Parliament aimed at better regulating private, for-profit higher education responds to a necessity: to regulate certain abuses. This opportunity for clarification demonstrates a desire to protect students and guarantee a guarantee of quality in French higher education.
This regulation is necessary. It still needs to avoid a persistent confusion: that which consists of considering all of private higher education as a homogeneous block, because all private establishments do not pursue the same logic.
On the one hand, some meet profitability objectives. On the other hand, the 64 establishments labeled Private Higher Education Establishments of General Interest (Eespig) fulfill a mission recognized by the State: to train, support and integrate students in a non-profit logic. The Catholic Institute of Arts and Crafts (Icam), a general engineering school, is one of them.
An already established legal framework, supported by an associative network
This Eespig label, we did not invent it. It was established by the law of July 22, 2013 relating to higher education and research.
It is the Ministry of Higher Education which issues it, after advice from the National Council for Higher Education and Research, on the basis of a multi-year contract with the State and specifications as demanding as those applicable to public establishments.
Behind this recognition, there is also a collective story. The Federation of Higher Education Establishments of Collective Interest (Fesic), a federation born in 1969, was one of the voices which led to the creation of this label in 2013. It today brings together 31 major schools of engineering, management, arts and human sciences, the vast majority of which are labeled Eespig.
It does not issue the label (the State is responsible for this) but it unites, represents and brings this model to life on a daily basis.
This Eespig model is based on a simple conviction: higher education must first serve the general interest. No shareholders to pay, no dividends to distribute. And a logic whose purpose is close to that which drives that of public higher education through a contract with the State. Every euro is reinvested in training, research, educational innovation and student support.
A strategic industrial issue
This model is far from being marginal: the Eespigs welcome more than 180,000 students in France. They deliver diplomas recognized by the State, welcome scholarship students and contribute to social diversity.
They also constitute an economically relevant model. According to Fesic, a student trained in this type of establishment represents an annual cost to public finances of more than €11,000 less than that of a student in public education.
But the issue goes beyond just the budgetary question. In engineering schools, we train the skills that France already lacks: engineers aware of and capable of supporting ecological, social and digital transitions, general engineers focused on industry, men and women committed to serving society and the economic world.
At a time when the country is talking about reindustrialization, technological sovereignty and ecological transition, these talents are becoming strategic. Beyond training engineers, it is about training them well, through quality courses.
France will not be able to reindustrialize without training more scientific and technical profiles.
Giving visibility to families
Families still need to be able to clearly identify establishments that are in the general interest. Parcoursup does not highlight this labeling, although it is decisive: no dedicated filter, no systematic educational sheet, distinctive signage but no information on what this implies.
Institutional communication, whether from the ministry, rectorates or guidance fairs, rarely mentions the label. Result: only 15% of high school students and 12% of parents are aware of the Eespig label when making their choices on Parcoursup.
Hundreds of thousands of families are orienting themselves blindly, without a reliable benchmark to distinguish actors of general interest from lucrative operators. Making the Eespig label systematically visible on Parcoursup and making it known through a dedicated campaign is the condition for students and their families to have the weapons to make a truly informed choice.
The current parliamentary debate offers the opportunity to lastingly clarify the landscape: stopping abuses where they exist, while fully recognizing the actors who contribute to a mission of general interest.
Between public universities and lucrative private education, France already has a model for the future. It’s time to give him the visibility and recognition he deserves.
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