France looks to the big league — from The Economist
Excerpt:
Plans to create a French Ivy League are part of the biggest shake-up in French higher education since students threw cobbled stones in les évènements of 1968. Championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, the idea is to spend €7.7 billion ($10.6 billion) to produce a handful of world-class universities which can compete with the best that North America and the rest of Europe have to offer. The proposed “Sorbonne League” will require the country’s highly selective business and engineering schools, or grandes écoles, to work with universities and independent research organisations in return for financial support. They will also be expected to get closer to the business community.