OE Global 2018

French policy for open education is the result of a combination of centralized and grassroots approaches.

The Ministry of Higher Education has, for the past seventeen years, co-funded the development of OERs, through several initiatives: “digital campuses”, “regional digital universities” and “thematic digital universities”.
At the same time, it is the scientific experts in the various academic fields and universities who validated these resources, based on their scientific content and excellence.

The result: a global repository with over 40,000 educational resources, mostly in open access, sometimes, in medicine or law, available through specific licensing.
Despite this achievement, no French Open University has emerged and Open Education policy in France is now at a juncture: it must move beyond the production and open access to educational resources, and address larger societal objectives, in line with the UN’s SDG 4 on Quality Education for all. The two current top priorities target different audiences, in an apparent contradiction, though.

The first one focuses on existing universities; policy makers support their radical digital transformation, to maintain their competitiveness on global markets, and emphasize competencies and skills for a diverse student body that mixes experiences at work and at universities throughout their life. While academic research remains at the core of the production of knowledge, it does not guarantee excellence in the learning experience of students.

At the same time, we need to support large-scale deployments of life-long professional learning, with no explicit connection to higher education institutions: universities are no longer the only source for professional skills and competencies, or their recognition. Open badges, blockchain processes, professional experience and other innovations in learning can develop into viable alternatives to university degrees, and therefore, into fierce competitors.

Maintaining a dynamic balance between these perspectives is a major challenge for French policy makers in open education.