France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, the ''agrégation'' () is a

competitive examination An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...

for

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

in the French

public education State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...

system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''professeur agrégé''. In France, ''professeurs agrégés'' are distinguished from ''professeurs certifiés'' recruited through the CAPES training. The ''agrégés'' are usually expected to teach in sixth-form colleges (''

lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

s'') and universities, while the ''certifiés'' usually teach in secondary schools (''

collège In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

s''), although there is a significant overlap. The examination may require more than a year of preparation. The difficulty and selectivity (quota) vary from one discipline to another: there are about 300 such positions open each year for

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

alone, but usually fewer positions are made available for humanities and social sciences (for example, 61 positions for

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

were offered in 2018) and perhaps only one seat in some rarely taught

foreign language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at school ...

s such as

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. In addition to the vast majority of ''agrégés'' teaching in ''lycées'', some ''agrégés'' teach in the preparatory classes to the ''

grandes écoles Grandes may refer to: * Agustín Muñoz Grandes, Spanish general and politician *Banksia ser. Grandes, a series of plant species native to Australia * Grandes y San Martín, a municipality located in the province of Ávila, Castile and León, Spain ...

'' or at the university level. Some ''agrégés'' teach in regular universities but do not, nominally, do

scientific research The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific m ...

as other university

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

s do; the positions are known as PRAG. Some positions ('' agrégé préparateur'', AGPR), including research, exist in the écoles normales supérieures, but they are very few. The ''agrégation'' is typically open only to holders of a five-year university diploma (master's degree) or above. There is also an internal ''agrégation'' for ''professeurs certifiés'', but it lacks the prestige of the external one although it remains selective (90 laureate/215 who passed the writing exams/873 who tried the writing exams/2001 candidates in 2010 in History-Geography). The following discusses the external one. The competitive exam generally consists of a written section (admissibility) which, for humanities and social sciences, is composed of numerous essays and analyses of documents up to 7 hours in duration. This stage is when most candidates are eliminated. The remaining candidates then have to go through an oral session (admission), composed of different exams in which candidates must demonstrate their ability to prepare and give lessons on any topic within the scope of his discipline. The oral exams provide the opportunity to verify that the candidates possess the appropriate speaking skills and have mastered the main exercises of their discipline; for example, in the Agrégation of Classics (French, Greek, Latin), candidates have to translate and comment on classical texts and texts from French literature. It is a way to establish whether candidates are able to fulfill requirements that they are going to need to satisfy. In most disciplines, the lessons expected extend well above the secondary education level; indeed, the candidate may even have to present a lesson appropriate for the second, third, or even fourth years of specialized courses at the

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

level. One reason is that the ''agrégés'' should be able to teach in special undergraduate sections of high schools, known as preparatory classes to the ''

'' and very similar in nature to

grammar schools A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...

, and the level may be far above the normal level of the first or second year of college education. The ''agrégation'' is also used as an unofficial national ranking system for students, giving a fair comparison between students of different universities. That is especially true in the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

, for which the ''agrégation'' is highly selective and supposedly demonstrates erudition of the candidate. Students of the écoles normales supérieures, as well as graduate students who have just completed their master's degree, often dedicate an entire year of their curriculum to prepare for the agrégation.

List of agrégations

; Enseignement des langues vivantes * Agrégation d'allemand (Agrégation of German language) *

Agrégation d'anglais In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''profes ...

(Agrégation of English language) * Agrégation d'arabe (Agrégation of Arabic language) * Agrégation de chinois (Agrégation of Chinese language) *

Agrégation d'espagnol In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''profes ...

(Agrégation of Spanish language) * Agrégation d'hébreu moderne (Agrégation of Hebrew language) * Agrégation d'italien (Agrégation of Italian language) * Agrégation de japonais (Agrégation of Japanese language) * Agrégation de polonais (Agrégation of Polish language) * Agrégation de russe (Agrégation of Russian language) * Agrégation de portugais (Agrégation of Portuguese language) ; Lettres et sciences humaines * Agrégation d'histoire (Agrégation of history) *

Agrégation de géographie In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''profes ...

(Agrégation of geography) * Agrégation de grammaire (Agrégation of grammar) * Agrégation de lettres classiques (Agrégation of classics) * Agrégation de lettres modernes (Agrégation of modern literature) * Agrégation de philosophie (Agrégation of philosophy) ; Économie * Agrégation de sciences économiques et sociales (Agrégation of economics and social sciences) ** option histoire et géographie du monde contemporain (history and geography of modern world - from the industrial revolution) ** option science politique et droit public (political science and public law) * Agrégation d'économie/gestion (Agrégation of economics and management) : ** option A : économie et gestion administrative, ** option B : économie et gestion compatible et financière, ** option C : économie et gestion commerciale, ** option D : économie, informatique et gestion. Although both Agrégations are labeled as Agrégation of economics, the Agrégation of economics and social sciences is more oriented towards political economy whereas the Agrégation of economics and management is more oriented towards business economics. ; Enseignement des sciences naturelles et physiques * Agrégation de mathématiques (Agrégation of mathematics) ** option informatique théorique ** option statistique et probabilités ** option calcul scientifique ** option algèbre formelle * Agrégation de sciences de la vie - sciences de la Terre et de l'Univers (Agrégation of biology-geology) * Agrégation de sciences physiques (Agrégation of physics-chemistry) ** option physique ** option chimie ** option physique appliquée ** option procédés physico-chimiques * Agrégation d’informatique (Agrégation in computer science) which was created in 2022 ; Enseignement professionnel et technique * Agrégation de biochimie - génie biologique (Agrégation of biochemistry - biology) * Agrégation de génie civil (Agrégation of civil engineering) * Agrégation de génie mécanique (Agrégation of mechanical engineering) * Agrégation de génie électrique (Agrégation of electrical engineering) * Agrégation de génie informatique (Agrégation of informatical engineering) * Agrégation de mécanique (Agrégation of mechanics) ; Enseignements artistiques * Agrégation d'arts : (Agrégation of arts) ** option arts plastiques (Agrégation of visual arts) ** option arts appliqués (Agrégation of applied arts) ** option histoire des arts (Agrégation of arts' history) * Agrégation de musique (Agrégation of music) ; Enseignement d'éducation physique * Agrégation d' éducation physique et sportive (Agrégation of physical education and sports)

In higher education

In some disciplines of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

such as

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

legal history Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilisations and operates in the wider context of social history. Certain jurists and histo ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

, there exists an ''agrégation'' for the professorship positions, called ''agrégation de l'enseignement supérieur''. In this competitive exam, the candidate also has to give several lessons in front of a committee. Usually there are three lessons, spread over several months, except in economics, where there are only two lessons. The first and the last lessons have to be prepared alone, during eight hours, in a library of basic titles selected by the committee. For the remaining lesson, when it exists, the candidate has a full 24 hours to prepare for the examination, and may use several libraries as well as a team of "helpers" (usually doctoral candidates or fellow candidates, but never full professors). Some anticonformist sociologists like

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence i ...

have argued that this exam measures a candidate's social connections as much their ability to present a lesson, especially considering the composition of the examining committee. * Agrégation de droit (Agrégation of law) ** Agrégation de droit privé (Agrégation of private law) ** Agrégation de droit public (Agrégation of public law) ** Agrégation d'histoire du droit (Agrégation of legal history) * Agrégation de science politique (Agrégation of political science) * Agrégation d'économie (Agrégation of economics ; not to be confused with the agrégations for secondary education that are the ''agrégation de sciences économiques et sociales'' and the ''agrégation d'économie et de gestion'') * Agrégation de gestion (Agrégation of management ; not to be confused with the agrégation for secondary education that is the ''agrégation d'économie et de gestion'')

Some well known ''agrégés''

*philosophers

Alain Badiou Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucau ...

(philosophy),

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson

(philosophy),

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

(philosophy),

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...

(philosophy),

Raymond Aron Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron (; 14 March 1905 – 17 October 1983) was a French philosopher, sociologist, political scientist, historian and journalist, one of France's most prominent thinkers of the 20th century. Aron is best known for his 19 ...

(philosophy),

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...

(philosophy)

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...

(philosophy),

André Glucksmann André Glucksmann (; 19 June 1937 – 10 November 2015) was a French philosopher, activist and writer. He was a leading figure of the new philosophers. Glucksmann began his career as a Marxist, but went on to reject communism in the popular bo ...

(philosophy),

Alain Finkielkraut Alain Finkielkraut (, ; ; born 30 June 1949) is a French philosopher and public intellectual. He has written books and essays on a wide range of topics, many on the ideas of tradition and identitary nonviolence, including Jewish identity and ant ...

(Modern Letters),

Luc Ferry Luc Ferry (; born 3 January 1951) is a French philosopher and politician, and a proponent of secular humanism. He is a former member of the Saint-Simon Foundation think-tank. Biography He received an Agrégation de philosophie (1975), a D ...

(philosophy), Louis Althusser (philosophy),

Simone Weil Simone Adolphine Weil ( , ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Over 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work, since 1995. ...

(philosophy), André Comte-Sponville (philosophy);

Jean-François Lyotard Jean-François Lyotard (; ; ; 10 August 1924 – 21 April 1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist. His interdisciplinary discourse spans such topics as epistemology and communication, the human body, modern art and ...

(Philosophy) *anthropologist

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...

(philosophy), etc. *politicians

Jean Jaurès Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; oc, Joan Jaurés ), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became one of the first social dem ...

(philosophy),

Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( , ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously was Prime Minister of France of President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to 196 ...

(Letters),

Alain Juppé Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans (France), The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced 1995 strikes ...

(Agrégation in Classics), Jacques Legendre (Agrégation in History and Geography),

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician serving as President of the Constitutional Council since 8 March 2016. A member of the Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 Marc ...

(lettres modernes),

Marisol Touraine Marisol Touraine (; born 7 March 1959) is a French politician who served as Minister of Social Affairs and Health under Prime Ministers Jean-Marc Ayrault,Angelique ChrisafisWomen in the French cabinet ''The Guardian'', 18 May 2012Olivier Auguste ...

(Agrégation in Economics and Social Science),

Bruno Le Maire Bruno Le Maire (; born 15 April 1969) is a French politician and former diplomat who has served as Minister of the Economy and Finance since 2017 under President Emmanuel Macron. A former member of The Republicans (LR), which he left in 2017 to ...

(Modern Letters),

Aurélie Filippetti Aurélie Filippetti ( ; born 17 June 1973) is a French politician and novelist. She served as French Minister of Culture and Communications from 2012 until 2014, first in the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault and then in the government of Manue ...

(Classics),

Laurent Wauquiez Laurent Timothée Marie Wauquiez (; born 12 April 1975) is a French politician who has presided over the Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes since 2016. He is a member of The Republicans (LR), which he led from 2017 to 2019 following the ...

(History), François Bayrou (Classics),

Xavier Darcos Xavier Darcos (born 14 July 1947) is a French politician, scholar, civil servant and former Minister of Labour. An ''agrégé'' professor in literature and general inspector of the National Education system, he has been Mayor of Périgueux, ...

(Classics), etc. *writers Jean-Paul de Dadelsen (agrégé in German), translator of Nathan Katz among others., , translator of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

Julien Gracq Julien Gracq (; 27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007; born Louis Poirier in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, in the French ''département'' of Maine-et-Loire) was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were no ...

(Agrégation in History and Geography), aka: Louis Poirier,

Jules Romains Jules Romains (born Louis Henri Jean Farigoule; 26 August 1885 – 14 August 1972) was a French poet and writer and the founder of the Unanimism literary movement. His works include the play '' Knock ou le Triomphe de la médecine'', and a cycle ...

aka: Louis Farigoule (philosophie),

Daniel-Rops Henri Daniel-Rops ( Épinal, 19 January 1901 – Tresserve, 27 July 1965) was a French Roman Catholic writer and historian whose real name was Henri Petiot. Biography Daniel-Rops was the son of a military officer. He was a student at the Facultie ...

(histoire-géographie) aka: Henri Petiot, Henri Queffélec (lettres),

Jean-Louis Curtis Jean-Louis Curtis (22 May 1917 – 11 November 1995), pseudonym of Albert Laffitte, was a French novelist best known for his second novel '' The Forests of the Night'' (French: ''Les Forêts de la nuit''), which won France's highest literary award ...

(English), Patrick Grainville (Agrégation in Modern Letters), Dominique Fernandez (Agrégation in Italian), Danielle Sallenave (letters), etc.; *

hellenist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

Jacqueline de Romilly Jacqueline Worms de Romilly (; née David, Greek: Ζακλίν ντε Ρομιγύ, 26 March 1913 – 18 December 2010) was a French philologist, classical scholar and fiction writer. She was the first woman nominated to the Collège de France, an ...

(Classics), etc., linguist Georges Dumézil (Classics); *mathematician

Cédric Villani Cédric Patrice Thierry Villani (; born 5 October 1973) is a French politician and mathematician working primarily on partial differential equations, Riemannian geometry and mathematical physics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2010, and he w ...

, recipient of

Fields Medal The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years. The name of the award ho ...

; *physicists

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (; 24 October 1932 – 18 May 2007) was a French physicist and the Nobel Prize laureate in physics in 1991. Education and early life He was born in Paris, France, and was home-schooled to the age of 12. By the age of ...

, recipient of

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

, and Philippe Nozières;

List of agrégations

In higher education

Some well known ''agrégés''

See also

References

Further reading