Patrick Hetzel, parliamentarian for the conservative Republicans party, is a longstanding champion of university autonomy
Patrick Hetzel, a National Assembly member for the conservative Republicans party with a longstanding interest in higher education policy, has been appointed research and higher education minister in France.
Hetzel officially started work on 23 September, two days after prime minister Michel Barnier nominated a new government.
Immediately after his nomination, Hetzel thanked Barnier in a post on the social media site X, saying: “I am committed with all my strength to ensuring that French research and higher education can completely fulfil their missions in the service of France and the general interest, with humility and determination.”
In a short speech after the handover of ministerial duties from previous appointee Sylvie Retailleau, he said he would “focus on the attractiveness of our research, its capacity for innovation, and European and international cooperation”, the higher education news website EducPros reported. He also promised to work “to ensure that the budget at European level can be doubled”.
University autonomy
Hetzel was first elected to the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, in 2012, following an early career as an academic in management science, a university administrator and a political adviser on higher education.
From 2008 to 2012, Hetzel was director-general for higher education in the civil service, a senior role overseeing policy rollout, compliance and guidance for universities and grandes écoles. He worked closely with then research minister Valérie Pécresse on the implementation of the controversial LRU law, which gave universities more autonomy in managing their affairs.
He has continued to work with Pécresse and to champion university autonomy ever since. In 2022, he was co-chair with Pécresse of the parliamentary working group for higher education and research. According to the newspaper Les Echos, he lamented at the time that “for 10 years, the university autonomy movement has been at a standstill”. He called for an “act two of university autonomy”—a formula that French president Emmanuel Macron would subsequently use to summarise his own reforms.
‘Islamo-leftism’
More recently, Hetzel attracted press attention over a speech he gave in the National Assembly asking for a parliamentary commission to investigate “ideological infiltration and Islamo-leftist excesses in higher education”. This reinvigorated an idea previously proposed by then research minister Frédérique Vidal in February 2021, which never came to fruition and was strongly opposed by many French academics.
Le Monde reported that when he spoke about the need for a commission in April, Hetzel said it would investigate “an active Islamo-leftist minority that is located at the convergence between far-left revolutionary militancy and Islamism”, whose influence in academia and within student associations was increasing “a little more every day”.
Budget worries
The most pressing concern for Hetzel as he starts his new role is likely to be negotiating the 2025 departmental budget.
On 20 September, Le Monde published excerpts from a message sent on 4 September by Retailleau to then prime minister Gabriel Attal that apparently confirmed budget cuts were being prepared and stated Retailleau’s opposition to them.
Retailleau’s message took aim at cuts of €300 million to the higher education and research budget that were being discussed. She stated that such a reduction in spending would constitute a breach of the multi-year LPR research programming law that came into force in December 2020 and that mandates higher spending each year.
Retailleau said: “Giving up the LPR would be a major mistake that would inevitably lead to a questioning of the ongoing transformations of the research landscape, a very tense social and political climate…and a deterioration in the results obtained in recent years that strengthen [French] research attractiveness.”
Hetzel has not commented on budget negotiations. However, speaking to Le Monde, Pierre Ouzoulias, a Communist Party senator, said that during debates on the LPR, Hetzel had “wanted a greater financial effort [from government], and faster”.
Mixed reaction
Initial reaction to Hetzel’s appointment has been mixed, with positive words from institutions including the CGE, the association of leaders of France’s grandes écoles, mixing with more critical ones, especially from higher education unions such as the FSU.
Asked for his opinion on Hetzel’s prospects, Philippe Zittoun, research professor in political science at the University of Lyon and general secretary of the International Public Policy Association, told Research Professional News: “I think the first issue for him is his ability to prevent the reduction of the research budget. As for the rest, I don’t think the life of this government will be long enough to allow him to do anything else.”
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