French elite university ‘is dumbing down’

FRANCE’S top political and administrative university has been accused of sacrificing meritocracy and excellence for positive discrimination after announcing it will scrap its entrance exam to improve social mobility.

Six of the past seven French presidents sat the exam for entry to the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, known as Sciences Po, including Emmanuel Macron.

But from 2020, it will do away with the written test and admit students on their sixth form record, baccalaureate exam result and a video interview.

“We want to create a fairer and more efficient system to ensure we attract a more diverse range of profiles,” said Frederic Mion, the school’s director.

“We want more diversity in background and origins and to take into account diverse criteria of excellence beyond academic ones: openness of the mind, perseverance, inventiveness and resilience.”

But the plan was mauled by the opposition Right-wing Republicans, whose senate head, Bruno Retailleau, said: “They are giving up on excellence by giving in to dumbing down.”

One of the key criticisms of the current entrance exam is that to succeed, many school-leavers spend an extra year at a preparatory college at an average cost of €2,000 (£1,800) in fees.

Sciences Po wants to almost double the number of partner schools from deprived areas to 200 and ensure that 30 per cent of new entrants come from poor backgrounds.