Cartography of the Higher Education and Research System in France: Strategy, Programming, Evaluation, and Operational Units

This article addresses the set of changes that have occurred in French higher education (HE) and research system, aiming at a general characterization of its current configuration. For that, it describes the main processes of the system reconfiguration based on the analysis of the current legislation, identifying significant changes concerning the strategic dimension, programming, financing, operationalization, and evaluation. Thus, it focuses on three systematically articulated spheres. In order to understand the reasons behind such changes, this article recovers the global context of adjustments in the so-called “neoliberal wave”—specifically the New Public Management (NPM), so as to place such evidence on the new cartographic framework of HE in France, concluding that the ongoing transformations are part of a global trend in the sector, involving economic elements, the issue of the public financing model, the management of human resources in a logic of competition, and the sophistication of the control mechanisms of the academic work. On the other hand, there are also changes towards the resignification of universities’ role as protagonists in the production of innovative and socio-economic solutions. Both trends weigh heavily on one of the most important pillars of higher education and research (HER) institutions, namely the issue of autonomy.