We would first like to salute the courage of the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Geneviève Fioraso, who is trying to impose a law authorizing teaching in English in universities, despite the opposition that arouses inevitably any reform that affects the role of the French language. A recent amendment nevertheless tends to limit the scope of the text by reserving teaching in English only to cases where “[they] are justified by educational needs”. Clearly, these courses in English would mainly be aimed at foreign students in France. At the Export Factory, we believe, on the contrary, that it is an extraordinary opportunity for French students to learn English better,
Today, graduates of University or Grandes Ecoles who say they speak English generally know how to read a document, understand and respond to an email; but only those who have studied and stayed abroad have the level required to manage a project or conduct a negotiation in English. Many schools and universities offer international exchanges, which is excellent, but it is clear that this only concerns a limited fraction of French students. For this reason, part of the teaching at the University being delivered in English seems to us to be a less expensive, more massive and more sustainable solution for improving the level of English of students; we see it as a real factor of emancipation and personal development for students,
English, an export factor
A recent study carried out among 100,000 employees in 58 countries establishes a direct correlation between the export success of a country and its average level of English. It particularly highlights this correlation with regard to exports of services and innovation, two subjects which are at the heart of the desired rebound of our economy. Teaching in English France is therefore located behind Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in terms of mastery of English, far behind Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries.
So the message from any political leader concerned about the prosperity of his fellow citizens should be that we must massively support learning in English, in our universities and elsewhere, and by all means in order to increase the chances of our students on the job market and promote the international development of our companies. For example, it should be remembered here that it is necessary to speak English to be hired at Airbus, whatever the position, because from executives to technicians the working language is English; or even that in tourism the low average expenditure per tourist visiting France is largely explained by the lack of English-speaking staff in hotels, cafes and restaurants, transport, museums, stores, etc.
Taking advantage of the global higher education market
For the academic world, teaching in a foreign language (mainly English, but also Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) is a tremendous opportunity, because the higher education is a global market which doubled between 2000 and 2010; and this growth will further accelerate, on the one hand, because the middle classes of emerging countries have the desire to send their children to study abroad, on the other hand, because the Internet allows global diffusion of interactive courses provided online by Universities.
There are nearly 4 million foreign students in the world today, and there could well be 10 million in 2025; the largest emitting countries today are China (560,000 Chinese study abroad) and India (200,000); followed by the Koreans (120,000) and the Germans (100,000). To place the orders of magnitude, we must bear in mind that foreign students bring approximately 30 billion euros of income to the United Kingdom and 11 billion euros to Australia; still to stay in the orders of magnitude, the budget of the French Ministry of Research and Higher Education is 25 billion euros. We thus see that welcoming foreign students can become a serious source of income for French universities,
Because our country is very well placed in this market: 260,000 foreigners come to study in France, or 6% global market share; this is a very good starting point; according to UNESCO statistics, France is among the 5 main host countries: United States (684,000 foreign students welcomed), United Kingdom (390,000), Australia (271,000), France (260,000) and Germany (201,000). France is the preferred destination for Arab countries and sub-Saharan Africa, a logical consequence of our French-speaking offer, which we must continue to enrich because with the emergence of the middle class in the Maghreb – and soon in Africa – we have there a very important market; but this French-speaking offer will only be reinforced if part of the courses are in English,
Opening your eyes to globalization opportunities
On the market for English-speaking training, we should however note the good ranking of Germany, which offers training in English which is perfectly suited to Asians, which does not prevent these students from gradually learn German while living in Germany. If everyone understands perfectly that it is difficult to force Chinese people to take computer courses in German, why persist in offering them these same courses necessarily in French? The success of Insead illustrates that it is perfectly possible to offer training in English in our country, and to place it at the top of its category.
By making the voluntary and positive choice to offer teaching in a foreign language, with English in mind, the French academic world has a huge card to play in the double-digit growth market for higher education. It is also a key vector for the creation of jobs and wealth in French universities. Better mastery of English would be an opportunity for all our fellow citizens (and our women and men in politics) to better understand today’s world and to seize its immense opportunities. Despite the recession affecting certain European countries, Asia is experiencing a historic growth phase – the Asian middle class will increase from 1 billion to 2.5 billion people – and Africa is finally beginning real economic growth.