France to Scrap Parcoursup by 2028 After Weeks of Student Anger

France to Scrap Parcoursup by 2028 After Weeks of Student Anger

Lecornu faces student leaders with a package deal

On Monday, October 26, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu received high-school and student organizations at Matignon and handed them a package of concessions, the government's first comprehensive answer after several weeks of mobilization. Education Minister Édouard Geffray and Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste detailed the measures at a joint press conference late Monday afternoon, announced by Matignon the day before.

A two-step exit: patch it in 2027, replace it in 2028

The plan runs in two stages. Parcoursup stays for the 2027 admissions round — the current final-year cohort cannot have its procedures rewritten mid-year — but under tightened rules: universities must justify every rejection, publish clearer selection criteria, and ask for fewer motivation letters. A brand-new admissions tool then takes over for the 2028 round, designed by a reform committee that includes high-school students and teachers. Tech outlets report the new system will use AI assistance to help institutions select applicants more fairly, with transparency as the explicit design goal.

The official pitch: a "very concrete" answer

Matignon had promised "very concrete answers" for Monday, and President Emmanuel Macron had earlier pledged a full "refonte" of Parcoursup to school representatives. The government also requested a no-vote debate on "the future of student guidance" in the National Assembly on Wednesday at 5 p.m. The message: the executive concedes the platform feels anxiety-inducing, opaque and unequal, but refuses to improvise a new system for students already in their final year.

Why now: a month of blockades and marches

The movement began in mid-September with school blockades and escalated through nationwide marches such as the October 6 demonstrations. Grievances run wider than admissions: overcrowded classes, unreplaced absent teachers, dilapidated buildings, overloaded timetables. University presidents warned on October 25 that scrapping Parcoursup "is not the magic solution," blaming years of deliberate funding cuts instead. With a national mobilization day set for November 5, the government chose Monday to unload its concessions before the street moves again.

Who feels it first: applicants, younger pupils, borderline bursary students

Current terminale students gain an immediately enforceable right: every rejection must carry reasons. Next year's seconde classes get a cap of 28 pupils per class — some now run to 35 — applying from fall 2027 in the most disadvantaged lycées and everywhere in 2028. And students just above bursary thresholds are promised a revised scale plus inflation indexation, pulling back those who recently lost eligibility.

Seats and staff: 15,000 places and 920 substitute posts

The hardest numbers cover higher education and staffing. A total of 15,000 new places will open, concentrated where demand bites hardest, starting with Île-de-France: 10,000 in BTS tracks oriented toward industry and science, 4,000 in IUT programs and 1,000 in health courses. That falls far short of the 250,000 demanded by the student intersyndicale — and of the 20,000 sought by university presidents at an estimated cost of 80 million euros. On staffing, the government cancels more than 800 planned job cuts in secondary education, creates 500 dedicated posts plus 200 mental-health support roles, and adds 920 substitute-teacher posts on top of the 3,000 standby replacements already mobilized by Geffray, to be funded through an amendment to the 2027 budget bill.

Five billion for buildings, via loans to the regions

The infrastructure pledge totals about 5 billion euros: nearly 4 billion in state loans to the regions to renovate collèges and lycées, plus 1 billion for universities. Whether loan money reaches building sites on time is the detail unions and local authorities will now police.

What comes next: debate, committee, November 5

Wednesday's Assembly debate carries no vote and mostly symbolism; the real test is whether the reform committee can deliver a working system within a year — Parcoursup itself replaced the old APB platform in 2018, so this would close a ten-year loop. Meanwhile the November 5 mobilization stands: student groups will read Monday's fine print before deciding whether to stand down or escalate. The government has bought time with "gone by 2028"; the street keeps its leverage with "show us 2027 first."