The current organization of higher education is ruled by the Code of Education, from the law of 1984, known as the Savary law. Its main idea is to have a common public service of education and higher education. While maintaining the major principles of the Faure law, it defines objectives to regroup grandes écoles within the same context as other higher education institutions and promote greater openness of these institutions to the outside world. It confirms the status of them as public institutions, now called Public Establishment of Scientific, Cultural and Professional Character (EPCSCP) (p.32). The principle of equal opportunity has long been emphasized in the French education system. In this frame, the education along life is also given to universities.
The most important elements in French higher education history between 1984 and 2007 were: first, the implementation of a contractual policy that links the State and the institutions and provides independent
higher education institutions with a new and viable content (1989); second, U2000 (University for 2000) followed by the “U3M (University in the Third Millennium) Plan for 2000-2006, which outlined the major development guidelines for the higher education system within the framework of the State-region plan; and third, the implementation of the European qualification architecture since 2002, known as the LMD reform.