France’s International Partnerships

France’s history as a cultural and political power, in Europe and throughout the globe, are reflected in its membership in a multitude of the world’s  most powerful multilateral organizations, including the World Trade Organization, WTO (members since 1995), The World Bank (1945), L’Organisation Internationale de La Fracophonie, OIF (1970), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO (1946), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD (1960) and the International Monetary Fund, IMF (1945).  While most of these organizations engage in education policy creation in one way or another, France is most often a creator of policy for others rather than an implementer of the policies created by these multilateral institutions.

(World Trade Organization, 2013, La Banque Mondiale, 2013, Organisation Internationale de la francophonie, 2013, UNESCO, 2013, OECD 2013, International Monetary Fund, 2012)

The international partnerships that have the most impact on French education are it’s membership in the European Union and participation in the Bologna Process.

In 1952, France, along with Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands founded the European Union (European Union, 2013).  As a founding member, France has always been strongly engaged in the European integration project.  In light of this it is not surprising that a large part of the impetus for the proposed European higher education harmonization project was based in a 1998 French Ministry of Education report (Orivel, 2005).  In 1999, Ministers of Education and university leaders from 29 European countries began the Bologna Processes which aimed to create a standardized European Higher Education Area in which degrees programs would be harmonized (EUA, 2013).