“…Since its considerable expansion in recent decades, the university sector, which is unselective, has been viewed as catering for the mass of French students, whereas the highly selective Grandes Écoles sector, despite the 'massification' of the universities, has continued to cater for an élite minority. In order to discuss the university and Grandes Écoles components of the French higher education, we provide an overview of the system and how it is structured (Toulemonde et al 2006;Chapoulie et al 2010).…”