Illustrative image of the Parcoursup website.

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DENIS CHARLET / AFP

  • The Parcoursup 2021 procedure started on January 20.

    The final year high school students and students in reorientation can express their wishes there.

  • In its annual report made public on Tuesday, the Ethics and Scientific Committee of Parcoursup, an independent body, judges that the platform still has progress to make.

  • Particularly in terms of matching the supply and demand for training, transparency, support for students in reorientation, etc.

After three years of existence, Parcoursup still has progress to make.

The guidance platform in higher education, so criticized in its first year of existence, has improved in several areas.

But it still has some flaws, as highlighted in the annual report of the Ethics and Scientific Committee of Parcoursup (CESP), an independent body, published on Tuesday.

These are four challenges that will have to be overcome in the coming years.

Too long a procedure

“We think the procedure is too long,” said CESP president Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin.

Because the formulation of wishes by the candidates starts in mid-January and the assignment phase takes place from mid-May to mid-September.

Eight months in all.

“New graduates sometimes wait more than two months before receiving a first proposal, which creates anxiety.

And that causes abandonment by weariness ”, underlines Catherine Moisan, Honorary Inspector General of National Education

and member of CESP.

To change the situation, the CESP proposes to make compulsory, about a week after the results of the baccalaureate (ie mid-July), the classification of the wishes pending by the candidates.

This would concern 55,000 people and would allow proposals to be made to candidates more quickly afterwards.

“The Minister of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, found this idea interesting to explore,” adds Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin.

The training offer does not match demand enough

While Parcoursup and the law "Guidance and student success", promulgated in March 2018, aimed in particular to reduce the failure rate in the first year of university by improving the orientation process, the CESP notes that too many new baccalaureate holders do not not get the training they want.

“The number of candidates who received only negative responses rose from 12,000 in 2019 to 17,600 in 2020. In addition, 41,000 new baccalaureate graduates did not receive any proposal at the end of the procedure.

And 78,000 new baccalaureate graduates leave the platform when they have had a proposal.

These figures are warning indicators, ”emphasizes Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin.

These data are in line with an Ipsos * survey published in September, through which 22% of new baccalaureate graduates declared that they were not satisfied with the training they obtained through Parcoursup.

Professional and techno baccalaureate holders are particularly poorly served, because they face competition from general baccalaureate holders when they request training in a BTS or DUT.

This prompts the CESP to ask the Ministry of Higher Education to better regulate supply and demand, "in particular by creating places in vocational training".

Territorial inequalities that persist

You do not have the same chances of accessing the training of your choice depending on your region of origin.

And surprisingly, while Ile-de-France is full of training courses, new graduates are poorly served.

“There is a mismatch between supply and demand for training for some young Ile-de-France residents.

Moreover, in 2019, 11% of new baccalaureate graduates from Ile-de-France did not receive any proposal, against 7% of new baccalaureate graduates from the rest of France ”, underlines Catherine Moisan.

And this for a simple reason: an over-representation of “elite” training in this region and an under-representation of the offer for technological and professional graduates.

"Remember that in Paris, there is only one IUT, while the region has more than 700,000 students", she underlines.

The CESP recommends a complete review of the training offer in this territory, but also that the files of candidates from Ile-de-France applying for vocational training outside their department be the subject of greater attention on Parcoursup.

Reorientation students too little supported

Another sign that shows that many new baccalaureate graduates are enrolling in a course that does not suit them well: the number of candidates in reorientation jumped by 48% on Parcoursup between 2018 and 2020. “And this population is likely to increase further. fact of the health crisis and its impacts ”, estimates Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin.

However, these reorientation students are poorly supported in their change of course, which can lead to another failure.

For Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, “it is up to the student's home institution to manage his change of course, first of all by making proposals for internal reorientation”.

And if this is not possible, the CESP recommends that the establishment support the student in his re-enrollment process in Parcoursup and issue an opinion on his reorientation project, like what is required of high schools for baccalaureate holders. .

The lack of transparency of the procedure

Many students complain that they do not understand the criteria on which the files are sorted.

"A certain number of formations (selective or under tension) operate a pre-screening of their candidates according to criteria which are not known".

For the CESP, the solution is simple and clear: the formations must publish a scale of pre-classification of wishes.

Society

Parcoursup: "17,800 training courses will be available this year on the platform"

Society

"Parcoursup has made progress, but has not yet reached its cruising speed", estimates Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin

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