What are the relations between democracy and education? How should equality of educational opportunity and fairness within education best be understood? How does education in France compare to that in other countries? Are the prestigious ‘grandes écoles’ a good way in which to produce social and political elites? What is the point of universities in France? How should ‘university autonomy’ be understood? Should France still be trying to increase levels of qualification, or has this strategy produced harmful levels of educational ‘inflation’? Rather than pursuing an exhaustive history of education in France, you will focus in this module on a number of debates that are of topical concern, while learning to situate these within a broad historical and sociological perspective. In the first half of the module we will explore issues in secondary education; in the second half we will move on to higher education.