Education choices and Degrees from 1985 to 2002

Abstract

The education level of young French people rose considerably from 1985 to 1995, stabilising over the last two years. The number of graduates from higher education doubled in 1996 compared with 1985, and represented nearly 38% of a given age bracket in 2001. At the same time, starting in the late 1980s, more young people entered the general secondary school third and fourth years, went more often into upper school to follow a general or technological course and went on to obtain better baccalauréat pass rates. High percentages then studied in higher education with better higher education qualification pass rates. At the same time, vocational education recruited slightly fewer, albeit more highly educated young people and put a larger number through the baccalauréat. The increasingly high level of qualifications and lengthening of studies concerned more especially the last generations in the baby boom.Educational Attainment, School Leavers