Ségrégation sociale à l'Université : des disparités académiques sur la période 2006-2016

This article is the first quantitative and exhaustive analysis of social segregation in French universities. Over the period 2006-2016, we calculate the Normalized Exposure index of very advantaged and disadvantaged students for each French académies and levels of education (one-year degree, two-year degree, Bachelor and Master). At the national level, values of Normalized Exposure index reveal the existence of social segregation in French universities, although at lower levels than those highlighted by other articles on secondary education. The geographical analysis of segregation shows that the levels of segregation are not systematically higher in the Île-de-France’s académies or in those linked to a large agglomeration as it is the case for secondary school: the overall level of segregation depends little on the size of the académie. However, the level of social segregation proper to advantaged students is positively related to the share of students that come from other académies. Eventually, we study the levels of segregation by education level: there is a decrease in segregation between the one-year and two-year tertiary degrees, as well as between Bachelor and Master degrees at the national level. However, this overall trend does not seem to be carried by all académies, but only by a limited number. In addition, there is an important variability of segregation across education levels as far as one académie can be characterized by low level of segregation for certain education levels and important ones for others.