[requinot59]

> basically everything is done in French, and much of it is required to be in French.

« La langue de la République est le français. » ("The language of the Republic is French"), first sentence of the second article of the French Republic Constitution (see http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=LEGITE...).

Since universities are public, so republican, schools, it makes sense to make them apply and respect the constitution.

The idea is that any French citizen is able to have access, read and understand any published university thesis (PhD), since they paid for them (via taxes). In the same vein, students of the École Polytechnique are required to work 5 years for the State after their studies, since the State paid such a good formation to them.

French can always go to private school (or emigrate) if they don't agree with that.

[roel_v]

"Since universities are public, so republican, schools, it makes sense to make them apply and respect the constitution."

Many constitutions have a clause like that. Encouraging international visibility, which requires English language skills, is not contrary to that.

"French can always go to private school (or emigrate) if they don't agree with that."

The point is that they're cutting off their nose to spite their faces. French researchers and students, and citizens more in general, are isolated in their own little world because their strange sense of 'pride' is causing them to be so. I don't care, really; but I do sometimes feel sympathy for those that I talk to who realize this and (rightfully) blame the system for their lowered chances at international success.

[requinot59]

> Encouraging international visibility, which requires English language skills, is not contrary to that.

No, it's not, and international visibility is obviously a good thing! But there is a problem if a PhD is published only in english, because then there might be French citizens who will not be able to read a work they paid for (remember, the public education system is funded by the taxpayers-citizens). Since most people yelling about the "language restriction" problem actually imply that they should be able to publish in english only, I did recall that this would be unconstitutional in France. Additionally publishing in english has never been forbidden or discouraged!

> I do sometimes feel sympathy for those that I talk to who realize this and (rightfully) blame the system for their lowered chances at international success.

This system is the application of the law. The French law is the consensus of all the French citizens on the way they want to live all together. If you, individually, don't like the law, you can militate for a change (possible since France is a democracy), or leave the country, if you really can't live with this general consensus. Dura lex sed lex.

In this specific case, you can also just go to a private school which will let you write in english or whatever. Sure, you'll have to pay there; sorry, you can't have the free public education with no duties in return in France.

Ideologically speaking, the French education system is very egalitarian and very meritocratic. Lots of people don't agree with it (the majority still does). That's why the private schools were allowed (after a violent public debate). But it's a chosen, working and interesting system. Yes, you can "rightfully blame the system", in the sense that you have the right to disagree, but otherwise it's not any more "rightful" to blame it than to blame any other working system (e.g: the US one). It's just a different conception of education and its place in the society.

[_delirium]

That seems reasonable; I didn't actually mean it as a criticism, just an explanation. Publishing only in French has downsides for readability outside France, but as you say, publishing only in English has downsides for readability within France. Most CS researchers and students I've met would prefer the English solution, mostly because they feel that, unlike in fields like philosophy or political science, the average French person isn't interested in reading their work anyway--- the only person who's going to read a theoretical CS thesis is another theoretical CS researcher. And in that case, they'd prefer the international community of theoretical CS researchers to be able to read their work.

Denmark is an interesting example of the opposite case: there are now graduate degree programs where you cannot study in Danish, because all courses and coursework are English-only. That's controversial to some extent, for obvious reasons. It does have some upsides from an international perspective, since Denmark can now hire researchers who don't speak Danish (which is why I'm in Denmark currently), and can also accept PhD students from other countries without requiring them to learn Danish first. But the situation differs from French because Danish has many fewer fluent speakers (about 6 million), so works published in Danish reach an audience much smaller than works published in French do.

[uriel]

> But there is a problem if a PhD is published only in english, because then there might be French citizens who will not be able to read a work they paid for (remember, the public education system is funded by the taxpayers-citizens).

Maybe those citizens should learn English.

But one of the main reasons why so many people in France don't speak English is precisely their broken educational system. (This is not exclusive to France, Spain for example is very similar.)

> Ideologically speaking, the French education system is very egalitarian and very meritocratic.

I don't see how a system can be both egalitarian and meritocratic.

> But it's a chosen, working and interesting system.

It is a system that fails the majority of the population ans only benefits the extremely small elite that gets to go to the Grandes Écoles.

[palsecam]

"I don't see how a system can be both egalitarian and meritocratic."

Egalitarian: education is free for all, and richs and poors (normally) go to the same school, the one of their town, until at least 16. Egality of chance.

Meritocratic: but after 16, you go to the university or a grande école according to your abilities/ranks. The best can go to Polytechnique, the good can go to a grande école or a good university, the rest goes to the other universities (and it's still free for all).

It doesn't matter if your parents are poor and if you were born in the country and not in Paris, if you're great you can go to Polytechnique. And no matter how rich the parents, if you suck, you won't go to Polytechnique.