Understanding French degrees

One main difficulty for foreign students having been educated abroad is to understand at which level they are in comparison with the french system of degrees.

Baccalauréat and end of secondary studies

One way of assesing a person level in higher education studies in different countries is to count the numbers of years, that they have been studying, taking for certain that young students have the same level of knowledge in different subjects when leaving secondary school.

One has to be aware that secondary schools in France are traditionally very demanding, especially in scientific subjects. Quite often new students need to improve their basic knowledge in some subjects.

A table demonstrating the correspondance in higher education systems (scientific and technical studies)

Duration of studies	French degree awarded	US system	German system
2 years	IUT or BTS, DEUG, DEUST, DU	Engineering technologist
3 years	Licence	Bachelor of science Bachelor in engineering
4 years	Maîtrise, MST, MIAGE or IUP degree		Diplom ingenieur Fachhochschule
5/6 years	Engineering degree	Master of science Master in engineering	Diplom ingenieur Technische Universität
	DEA / DESS /Mastère/ Magistère/ DRT
8 years or more	Doctorat	PhD	Promotion

Equivalence issues are evaluated according to each institute.

see "the equivalence dilemna"
claude.maury@wanadoo.fr Leave any suggestions, ideas or improvements that could be used.
http://www.cri.ensmp.fr/~cefi/