Valerie Pécresse, the French Minister for Higher Education and Research, while preparing to table the proposal to develop a European university ranking system at the meeting with her European counterparts in November 2008, announced the launching of the second wave of universities auditing in France, as twenty of the recipients of the first auditing round will be granted autonomy on January 1st 2009. The thirty universities that will be audited by L’Inspection Generale de l’Administration de l’Education Nationale et de la Recherche until June 30th 2009, are envisaged to become autonomous on January 1st 2010.

The audits are part of a series of measures destined to help the universities in their preparation for taking on the new competences, as stated in the law of August 10th 2007 on the rights and responsibilities of universities. They should identify what progress needs to be done in order for the universities to endorse their new competences. It is based on these audits and on the efforts of universities to follow the recommendations that the ministry will decide on them becoming or not autonomous.

French Ministry for Higher Education and Research - Press Release