Beautiful Mess-Protests and Strikes

Being in a leftist public University in France, I experience strikes and protests every year. French universities are profoundly attached to their Revolutionary spirit. Today, Research and Education are defended. Some of the biggest outlines of the government's potential law are:

-The separation of the Research from the Teaching; meaning that if a Professor is considered more efficient as a researcher then as a teacher, he will be asked to dominantly work in research and neglect its teaching (and vice versa).

-The Evaluation of the Research level should be more frequent and have a better controlled financial budget.

More details of the law must be considered of course and I am not the best person to enumerate all of its factors and judge its consequences. Nevertheless, I have read a very interesting point of view about it.

According to the Solidarité et Progres* Party, a creative researcher needs time and independence to publish high quality work. Our society should support and encourage its researchers (Professors, Doctors, Chemists…), while organizing this endorsement on a wider level instead of leaving it all to the deans of universities.

Over the years, the share of Research in the French GDP has dropped from 3% (During the De Gaulle and the Mendes era) to 2% today. Given the fact that we are encountering a very delicate financial phase, monetary restriction could be justified as a measure for limiting Public expenses. However, we shouldn’t mistake that as a sacrifice of Research which, by no means, could ever slow down expansion. Research is synonym of innovation, of product simulation and of responsible societies. It is what we can call the necessary expenses; the compensation it brings is far greater then the amount of money allocated for it. It is like a medical insurance that protects you to a certain extent from the unknown ahead. The US has understood that a long time ago while France is still paying the price. Brain drain is real, it is everywhere and some of our top-notch French Professors have left the country and crossed the Atlantic where their desires and demands are quite easily met there.

*Solidarity and Progress