Sir

Your report “Battle to boost the status of French universities” rightly points out that French universities have been the poor relation of the grandes écoles (Nature 391, 6; 1998). This is correct in terms of economic evaluation and may be explained by the leading administrative positions occupied by former students of these écoles. I take exception, however, to your statement and tone when you say that “until now French universities have played second fiddle in science to the public research organizations” and that “university staff often have almost no time for research”.

To begin with, all French researchers are educated and trained in the universities before they enter research laboratories located, mostly, on university campuses, less frequently in public research organization buildings and almost never in the grandes écoles. Second, these trainees have undergone ruthless selection processes in the university graduate schools, where fewer than 5% of initial graduates are accepted for PhD programmes. Third, at every stage of their training, these future researchers are ‘supervised’ by university staff who teach through their own example the way in which research and education in science are intimately associated.

Finally, it should be recognized that the great majority of laboratories at any of the leading public research institutes in France are directed not only by university graduates but more strikingly by university staff and professors. That these talented teachers have been operating in less than favourable conditions when compared to their more fortunate colleagues from the other research organizations is certainly true and this is where it is to be hoped that the education minister, Claude Allègre, will introduce order and justice.