New Demographics in French Higher Education: From Non-Traditional Students to Recent Changes at the Institutions Level
This article looks into the expression “New student population” which became popular in France further to the second school expansion wave (1985-1995) to designate a new student category less endowed with social and educational resources. However, this expression has been used heedlessly over the past decades to refer to such a public among French university goers. After surveying the use of this notion in the press and institutional narratives as well as in scientific literature, together with analysing multiple databases (data from OVE’s Conditions de vie survey, 2016 post-secondary admission databases and Parcoursup 2019), this article yields three main findings. First, the expression “New student population” is frequently used during reform periods and describes students without a general secondary education degree. Second, the data evidences the significant increase in the student population since the early 2010’s resulting from the greater number of students with a vocational degree on the one hand and the demographic boom of the early 2000’s on the other hand. In this perspective, we can relevantly speak about a third school massification wave. Third, these bachelor students now more often register in the Faculty of Science and less in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities when it used to be the opposite. Finally, an analysis of students’ social characteristics by university in the Ile-de-France area shows that the greater number of freshers does not correlate with improved social diversity. On the contrary, comparing the distribution of these students in 2016 and in 2019 highlights a deeper educational segregation between Ile-de-France establishments therefore worsening existing inequalities in higher education.