France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

in the French

public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

system. Successful candidates become ''professeurs agrégés'' () and are usually appointed as teachers in

secondary schools A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

or preparatory classes, or as lecturers in universities.

Context

Originating from the 18th century, the is a highly prestigious and competitive examination. The level of selectivity varies between disciplines: every year, the French Ministry of National Education determines and publishes a list of annual quotas for each discipline. There are about 300 to 400 positions open each year for

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, but usually fewer positions for humanities and social sciences (for example, 85 positions for

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

were offered in 2024) 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 specific country. Native speakers from that country usually need to acquire it through conscious learning, such as through language lessons at schoo ...

s such as Japanese. The is typically open only to holders of a five-year university diploma (master's degree) or above. There is also an internal for ''professeurs certifiés''.

Selection process

The examination requires usually more than a year of preparation. 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 this examination, enrolling into specific graduate programs. Candidates are called ''agrégatifs''. The competitive exam generally consists first of a written part (''admissibility''), then an oral part (''admission''). The jury is composed of university professors.

Admissibility

The admissibility phase is composed of numerous writing tests, which consist of essays and analyses of documents. Each test takes up to 7 hours in duration, and the admissibility phase usually runs over an entire week. Points obtained at each test are totaled, and candidates that meet the threshold set by the yearly quota are pronounced ''admissible'' by the jury. The writing part is when most candidates are eliminated.

Admission

The remaining candidates have to go through an oral part (''admission''), composed of different oral exams. In front of the jury, candidates must demonstrate their ability to prepare and give lectures on any topic within the scope of the discipline. These lectures provide the opportunity to verify that the candidates possess the appropriate speaking skills and master the main exercises and components 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. These lessons extend well above the secondary education level; the candidate may have to present a lesson appropriate for the second, third, or even fourth years of specialized courses at the

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

level. One reason is that the ''agrégés'' should be able to teach in preparatory classes, 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 Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

, or in universities. Points obtained at the admissibility and admission phases are ultimately totaled and used to rank candidates in accordance with the yearly quota: for instance, for a quota of 60 positions, the first 60 candidates will pass the exam and are pronounced ''admis'' by the jury. The is therefore used as an unofficial national ranking system for students, giving a fair comparison between candidates of different universities. That is especially true in the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

and social sciences, for which the is highly selective and supposedly demonstrates erudition of the candidate.

Professional outcomes

In France, ''professeurs agrégés'' are distinguished from ''professeurs certifiés'', recruited through the CAPES, the other main competitive exam in the French education system. The ''agrégés'' receives a higher salary and are usually endorsed with a smaller teaching service. While ''agrégés'' are 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 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

s'') and universities and the ''certifiés'' in secondary schools ('' collèges''), there is a significant overlap. In addition to the vast majority of ''agrégés'' teaching in sixth-form colleges and secondary schools, some ''agrégés'' teach in the preparatory classes for 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, through a faculty position known as PRAG and focused on teaching, which does not require to undertake

scientific research The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has been referred to while doing science since at least the 17th century. Historically, it was developed through the centuries from the ancient and medieval world. The ...

, as other university

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

s do. A few positions that include research activities, called '' agrégé préparateur'', or AGPR, exist in the .

List of agrégations

; Foreign languages * Agrégation d'allemand (Agrégation of German language) * Agrégation d'anglais (Agrégation of English language) * Agrégation d'arabe (Agrégation of Arabic language) * Agrégation de chinois (Agrégation of Chinese language) * Agrégation d'espagnol (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) ; Humanities * Agrégation d'histoire (Agrégation of history) * Agrégation de géographie (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) ; Economics and Social Sciences * 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. ; Physical and Natural Sciences * Agrégation de mathématiques (Agrégation of mathematics) ** option A : probabilités et statistiques ** option B : calcul scientifique ** option C : algèbre et calcul formel ** option D : informatique théorique (does not exist anymore since the creation of Agrégation d'informatique) * 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 ; Technical and Vocational Education * 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) ; Art * 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) ; Physical Education * Agrégation d' éducation physique et sportive (Agrégation of physical education and sports)

In higher education

In some disciplines of

higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...

such as

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

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 civilizations and operates in the wider context of social history. Certain jurists and his ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

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

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

, there exists an 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 influ ...

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 Foucault ...

(philosophy),

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

(philosophy),

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

(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, nor was she ...

(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 ...

(philosophy),

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

(philosophy)

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

(philosophy), André Glucksmann (philosophy),

Alain Finkielkraut Alain Luc Finkielkraut (; ; born 30 June 1949) is a French essayist, radio producer, and public intellectual. Since 1986, he has been the host of ''Répliques'', a talk show broadcast weekly on France Culture. He was elected a Fellow of the Ac ...

(Modern Letters), Luc Ferry (philosophy),

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...

(philosophy),

Simone Weil Simone Adolphine Weil ( ; ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic and political activist. Despite her short life, her ideas concerning religion, spirituality, and politics have remained widely influential in cont ...

(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 p ...

(Philosophy), Catherine Malabou (philosophy) *anthropologist

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

(philosophy), etc. *politicians

Jean Jaurès Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; ), was a French socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became a social democrat and one of the first possibi ...

(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 served as Prime Minister of France under President Charles de Gaulle from 19 ...

(Letters),

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

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

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician. A member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 March 1986. Fabius was 37 years old when he was a ...

(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 Augu ...

(Agrégation in Economics and Social Science),

Bruno Le Maire Bruno Le Maire (; born 15 April 1969) is a French politician, writer, and former diplomat who served as Economy and Finance Minister from 2017 to 2024 under President Emmanuel Macron. A former member of The Republicans (LR), which he left in ...

(Modern Letters), Aurélie Filippetti (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 from 2016 to 2024. He is a member of The Republicans (LR), which he led from 2017 to 2019 follow ...

(History),

François Bayrou François René Jean Lucien Bayrou (; born 25 May 1951) is a French politician who has served as Prime Minister of France since December 2024. He has presided over the European Democratic Party (EDP) since 2004 and the Democratic Movement (France ...

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

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

Julien Gracq Julien Gracq (; born Louis Poirier; 27 July 1910 – 22 December 2007) was a French writer. He wrote novels, critiques, a play, and poetry. His literary works were noted for their dreamlike abstraction, elegant style and refined vocabulary. He ...

(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 cyc ...

aka: Louis Farigoule (philosophie), Daniel-Rops (histoire-géographie) aka: Henri Petiot, Henri Queffélec (lettres), Jean-Louis Curtis (English), Patrick Grainville (Agrégation in Modern Letters), Dominique Fernandez (Agrégation in Italian), Danielle Sallenave (letters), etc.; *historian Patrick Boucheron, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Pierre Nora,

Pierre Vidal-Naquet Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet (; 23 July 193029 July 2006) was a French historian who began teaching at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in 1969. Vidal-Naquet was a specialist in the study of Ancient Greece, but was als ...

, Michelle Perrot *sociologists

(philosophy),

Émile Durkheim David Émile Durkheim (; or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French Sociology, sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern soci ...

(philosophy), etc. *economist

Esther Duflo Esther Duflo, FBA (; born 25 October 1972) is a French-American economist currently serving as the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2019, she w ...

, recipient of the

Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (), commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics(), is an award in the field of economic sciences adminis ...

; Emmanuel Farhi, Daniel Cohen, etc. * hellenist Jacqueline de Romilly (Classics), etc., linguist

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French Philology, philologist, Linguistics, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and comparative mythology, mythology. He was a prof ...

(Classics), etc. *mathematicians

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 ...

, recipient of the

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 Mathematicians, International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place e ...

; Hugo Duminil-Copin, recipient of the

, etc. *physicists Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, recipient of

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

, Philippe Nozières, etc.

In popular culture

In the movie L'Étudiante, a dramatic scene features

Sophie Marceau Sophie Marceau (; born Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu, 17 November 1966) is a French actress. As a teenager, she achieved popularity with her debut films ''La Boum'' (1980) and ''La Boum 2'' (1982), receiving a César Award for Most Promising Act ...

undertaking the oral exam for the ''agrégation'' of Classic Literature. In the TV show The Bureau, Paul Lefebvre, one of the aliases of French spy Guillaume Debailly, played by

Mathieu Kassovitz Mathieu Kassovitz () is a French actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has won three César Awards: Most Promising Actor for '' See How They Fall'' (1994), and Best Film and Best Editing for '' La Haine'' (1995). He also re ...

, holds the ''agrégation'' of Modern Literature.

Context

Selection process

Admissibility

Admission

Professional outcomes

List of agrégations

In higher education

Some well-known ''agrégés''

In popular culture

See also

References

Further reading