Originating from the 18th century,[1] theagrégation is a highly prestigious and competitive examination.[2][3][4][5] The level of selectivity varies between disciplines: every year, the FrenchMinistry of National Education determines and publishes a list of annual quotas for each discipline.[6] There are about 300 to 400 positions open each year formathematics, but usually fewer positions for humanities and social sciences (for example, 85 positions forphilosophy were offered in 2024[7]) and perhaps only one seat in some rarely taughtforeign languages such asJapanese.
Theagrégation is typically open only to holders of a five-year university diploma (master's degree) or above. There is also an internalagrégation forprofesseurs certifiés.
The examination requires usually more than a year of preparation. Students of theécoles 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 calledagrégatifs.
The competitive exam generally consists first of a written part (admissibility), then an oral part (admission).
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 pronouncedadmissible by the jury. The writing part is when most candidates are eliminated.
The remaining candidates have to go through an oral part (admission), composed of different oral exams.[8] 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 theuniversity level. One reason is that theagrégés should be able to teach inpreparatory classes, very similar in nature togrammar schools, 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 pronouncedadmis by the jury.
Theagrégation 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 thehumanities and social sciences, for which theagrégation is highly selective and supposedly demonstrates erudition of the candidate.
In France,professeurs agrégés are distinguished fromprofesseurs certifiés, recruited through theCAPES, the other main competitive exam in the French education system. Theagrégés receives a higher salary and are usually endorsed with a smaller teaching service. Whileagrégés are expected to teach in sixth-form colleges (lycées) and universities and thecertifiés in secondary schools (collèges), there is a significant overlap.
In addition to the vast majority ofagrégés teaching in sixth-form colleges and secondary schools, someagrégés teach in thepreparatory classes for thegrandes écoles, or at the university level, through a faculty position known asPRAG and focused on teaching, which does not require to undertakescientific research, as other universityacademics do. A few positions that include research activities, calledagrégé préparateur, or AGPR, exist in theécoles normales supérieures.
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.
In some disciplines ofhigher education such aslaw,legal history,political science,economics,management, there exists anagrégation for the professorship positions, calledagrégation de l'enseignement supérieur. In this competitive exam, the candidate also has to give several lessons in front of a committee.[10]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 likePierre Bourdieu 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.[citation needed]
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 theagrégation de sciences économiques et sociales and theagrégation d'économie et de gestion)
Agrégation de gestion (Agrégation of management; not to be confused with the agrégation for secondary education that is theagrégation d'économie et de gestion)
^Jacob S. D. Blakesley (2018).A Sociological Approach to Poetry Translation: Modern European Poet-Translators. Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Routledge.ISBN9780429869853.
