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Alneyan said:
University is actually seen as the worst in France (with the exception of a few courses, like medecine, and where university is simply the only way), and has a pretty poor reputation, so I was wondering at the differences with other countries. I would expect the situation to be quite different, since that's a common criticism against France, but I would prefer first-hand opinions.
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Heh. That's because universities in France and Germany are full of young people who have no clear idea of what they intend to do in life and keep studying and studying and studying because it's free and it frees them from needing to do any actual work. At least that was the impression I got when I was studying in France.
I believe that in the U.S. and to a lesser extent, the U.K. students are more career oriented. I don't believe that any companies recruit on university campuses in France and Germany, except for the most elite institutions, but I believe that it is commonplace in U.S. and U.K. Also, I believe that in the U.S. a university student typically has a lot of different types of part-time work experience already, while in France and Germany, most young people get into paid work only after they graduate from university. This prior work experience helps, I think, to temper them and IMHO gives U.S. students a clearer idea of what they want out of university education based on what they know of the demands of the job market.
I believe that in France, university education is generally considered a time-waster by companies, but IIRC, some specialist institutions, e.g. IUTs, art and design schools, etc. still have a pretty good reputation.