Public good in French universities: Principles and practice of the ‘republican’ model

This paper explores the French case examined as part of a CGHE comparative research project that seeks to understand the production of public good in higher education. We examine the historical and contemporary cultural, political, social and economic forces that may explain the ways in which public good(s) is (are) perceived, translated and debated within the French higher education context. Our methodology combines documentary analysis at government and institutional levels and fieldwork research, as part of which 60 semistructured interviews were conducted in four public universities. Our first findings indicate that a variety of views of the public good of higher education co-exist, which reflect various conceptions of the ways in which the principles and practices driving the French ‘republican’ model work or should work.