French university professors decry a failing system

By Guillaume Guguen. Five years after a controversial reform granted France’s public universities greater autonomy over budget, staff, curriculum and funding, professors seem to be anything but happy. France24.com takes a closer look at their complaints.
Although the classroom in which she teaches is brand new, Nathalie Montoya, a professor of sociology at Paris Diderot University, is not happy with her working conditions.
“We have a beautiful facility here, but there’s no heat,” the 35-year-old Montoya said, seated next to a radiator.
The university’s recently opened campus in the southeastern 13th district of the French capital may be spiffy on the outside, but several factors have brought university personnel to the breaking point.
Last month, several professors and researchers penned an op-ed in left-wing daily newspaper Libération, denouncing the deterioration of France’s public universities and enumerating their grievances. Chief among them were poorly equipped classrooms, libraries being shut down and insufficient funds. Read more...