A new organisation for programmes leading to a Master's degree will be implemented from September 2017 in France.

Since the implementation of the "LMD reform" (the Bologna process in France) in 2002, programmes that lead to a Master's degree have been available in a number of forms. Some Master's programmes comply with the 2002 reform, while others are modelled on the old system of Maîtrise (4th year), DEA and DESS (two 5th year programmes). The student's decision on which track to follow is therefore based more on personal inclination than on clear regulation. Even in cases where certain programmes leading to a Master's degree already conformed to a two-year-programme format, most of these continued to perform student selections between the first and the second years of the programme anyway.

A joint proposal was made by Unions and the Department of National Education, Higher Education and Research to reform the organisation of Master's programmes, and was presented to the Conseil National de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche (CNESER - National Council for Higher education and Research) on 17 October 2016. It was approved by the CNESER and will be introduced starting in September 2017.

The proposal aims at retaining two main principles from the previous organisation of programmes which comply with the 2002 reform:

• The programme leading to the Master's degree must be a 4-semester programme (and hence without an intermediary student selection process) and must be based on a one-time recruitment process before the first semester;
• Every holder of a Licence degree (Bachelor's degree) must have the opportunity to continue his or her studies by following a programme that leads to a Master's degree.

If a student with a Licence degree receives no offers of a Master's degree programme, he or she will be able to assert his or her right to continued study. This right may be immediate (as soon as the student obtains the Licence degree) or delayed. It falls on the local educational authorities to ensure students will be able to continue their studies, albeit under the constraints of the student's career choices and the number of available places per programme, etc.

Source: French Eurydice Unit