Health Studies: the last numerus clausus is available

So, numerus clausus figures are published for the last time. According to the law of July 2019 on organisation and transformation of health systems, the numerus clausus and the PACES (“Première Année Commune aux Etudes de Santé”, common first year in health studies) will be deleted for the 2020 year to “foster diversity of access routes to health studies, closer to the needs of regions in France”, as the two ministries managing this reform declared.

2020 numerus clausus figures

This year, the overall number of 15,000 students includes about 1,000 professionals joining training courses through education bridges (including in continuing training), to be added to the number of students currently in end of first year. More precisely, specialities open to 15,000 students are organised in 4 main categories:

• medicine: 9,361 students;
• odontology: 1,332 students;
• pharmacy: 3,265 students;
• maieutic: 1,039 students.

This numerus clausus, determined by the government, will soon be lifted and allow universities to better adapt the needs of regions and define the number of students they accept in their various courses, in cooperation with the Regional Agencies for Health.

A reform of health studies that diversifies study plans

For the academic year 2020, the PACES (only access system to these courses) and the numerus clausus, “both representative of an admission system characterised by sharp selection” according to the government, will be lifted thanks to the reform of 2019.

The objective of this reform is to increase the number of health professionals every year, to tackle failure in first year, to diversify the recruitment of students, and to better answer the needs in health for all regions. So, students can now access medical studies in two different ways:

• the first is the most common and will take the form of a PASS, first year open to students who just passed their baccalauréat (or equivalent) and choose the “Parcours Spécifique Santé”, without numerus clausus at the end of the first year;
   
• the second study course will grant access to the opportunity for students to attend a LAS (“Licence avec option Accès Santé”), which will allow them to be accepted in 2nd year of medical studies, with an entry exam to pass.