I was reading an article from Le Monde [1] about the state of French research, especially the despair of French doctorates, and what it means. As you might have seen if you have read my bio, I am French, and I have a doctorate, although not from a French University but from EPFL in Switzerland. So I think it is important to write here what I think of the situation because it affects me directly.
What is the problem? Academic jobs are extra hard to get, with ever more people doing g a PhD, but no professor positions being created, we can only hope to become a professor if an existing leaves his position. That is not new. that is not really surprising. So a lot of PhD are actually looking for an industrial position, especially in hard sciences and engineering. I'll mostly talk from that perspective now as a STEM graduate, this is what I know. I don't know the struggle of graduates in the soft sciences.
So what is the problem with hiring doctorates in the industry in France?
In my opinion, the problem is not with doctorates, it is with the higher education system in France that has two speed. You have something that doesn't exist anywhere else in the world : the "classes préparatoires". I am the product of this system, I know it well from within. After graduating high school, I did a "classe prépa" for 2 years and then got into an engineering school. To the outsider, my path was successful, I did everything right and I should be totally happy about this system. I turned out fine in the end, why should I feel otherwise?
In France, when you are a good student in high school, you are highly "encouraged" to try for a "classe prépa". It's especially true if you don't really know what you want to do, which, let's be honest, is the case for most kids at 18, and it was the case for me. So these "smart" kids do the smart decision and go for it. What I didn't write here is that some high school teachers will directly tell you that university (uni) and faculty (fac) are sub-par choices, that they are for the "mediocre" students. You hear professors say that, you read on forum the same idea, you are basically convinced at 18 that going to uni is for those who are not good enough for prépa. Whatever that means really.
So you apply for the prépa, get accepted, work your ass off during those 2-3 years of prépa and get indoctrinated that you are "France's Elite". As opposed to the "regular people" going to Uni and Fac of course. I got the speech on my first day over there. I got the speech almost every other week. We are in Classes Prépa, we are the "Elite of France", other countries look at us, French engineering students in awe... "The world is jealous of our wonderfully smart and clever French engineers from X, Mines, Centrales, etc... We are the best of the best..."
See the latest Le Monde article [2] to realize how amazing engineering students in prestigious schools are between each others...
Then you have the engineering school entrance exam. Engineering schools mostly take people from "classes prépa". They also take people from Uni, after some special program and exams. Because, you never know if some " hidden genius" passed through the net and managed to end up in University. The result is a total Brain Drain from everywhere to Engineering schools.
This result in less good students in Uni, which leads to less attractiveness for funding universities, which creates a negative feedback and forces ever more smart kids to reconsider staying in Uni because of lack of money and prestige.
Which in turns, lead to something else: If you, as a student, know the state of higher education in French Universities, you should not want to pursue a doctorate in a French University. Indeed, a lot of people stop their higher education at the Master level, never considering the PhD, because, in France, PhD's are for becoming a professor and nothing else. At a Master level, a student can get a good paying job and enter the industry, become independent. The best students do that. The ones that can't find a job at Master level, well, they go for more years in hiding... into doctorate. Paid close to the minimum, working in terrible conditions, with little funding, in labs that are often under-equipped or equipped with old equipment from the 80's or 90's. How many computers running Windows XP? Windows 98? DOS? French recruiters believe that. Everybody believes that.
This means that when applying for a position, if you have a Master and a PhD, you'd better only mention your Master and say something super quick about the PhD, if not just ignoring it. Because the French recruiter will see that as a red flag and will not contact you for fear that you might be some weirdo that loves to hide in a laboratory, work on incomprehensible stuff and being bad at communicating. The typical crazy scientist stereotype.
Weirdly enough, anywhere else in the developed world, having a PhD is a sign of knowledge and expertise. Not in France? Or is it that recruiters don't look for experts and knowledge? This, I don't know, as I never spoke to a French recruiter... They never contacted me back somehow. But I know that other international recruiters value higher education, especially doctorates. So to me, this is a French exception that makes no sense.... Or does it?
Let's stay in the education world. More precisely in the teacher's and professor's world. As I wrote elsewhere, I actually love to teach, and some of my best time during my PhD was working with the students in first year for the physics lecture, explaining stuff in physics and maths. Why haven't I pursued a career as a teacher in France? Money is at the heart of the problem. Did you know that France is in the middle of the OECD ranking for teacher's salary with 30k$ for a High School teacher [3]. Not bad huh? It's the same salary as a teacher in Chile or Slovenia... Note that the cost of living in Chile and Slovenia is not the same as in France (50% less in Chile and 30% less in Slovenia, meaning that at similar salary, the Chilean teacher will far 50% better than the French teacher...) Compare that to Germany, where someone with the same education, in the same position would get 70k$, more than twice. Is the cost of living twice in Germany than in France? I don't think so. It's quite close. It's 15% higher in Germany.... France underpays critically its teachers and professors. Which means that the positions are taken mostly by people with no other option, that are more often than not, under-qualified for the position.
I think it is important to realize that the future citizen, the future engineers, the future scientists, the future philosophers are always at some point kids (duh...) going to school and that the money spent on education is money invested in people that will repay back in the long term. Making measures to decrease the pay of educators is going to also have consequences. The money that is spared today and tomorrow will be lost tenfold in the far future. As long as the politics are only concerned about short term actions, I see no reasons why the situation might change.
Coming back to the initial issue about the future of doctors in France. As I wrote, being a professor is either impossible, or unlikely. Being hired as a teacher elsewhere is ridiculous compared to the money someone could make in the private sectors. Unfortunately, the private sector in France has a hard-on for engineers and engineers only, and having a doctorate is seen as negative. In the end, the only real option for us is to emigrate and seek a position in academia in a better country, or a position in the private sector in a country where PhDs are valued, which means almost everywhere else than France.
The end result in the far future is a brain drain from France that the politics from the last 20 years has amplified, with no reasons to change, with no slowing back. The result is generally less innovations in France, who, for instance, was totally left out of the digitalization of the world and missed the train. Also missed the train for solar power. Also missed the train for electric cars... At least, France is pretty good at nuclear power plants, but then again, it's "old technology" from the 50's and 60's, few innovations there in recent years.
Too bad...
