2023-06-13 03:10:20
On the one hand, hundreds of thousands of future students riveted to the Parcoursup site, on the other, around thirty agents hard at work managing the millions of post-baccalaureate wishes, in a confidential location near Toulouse .
Outside, nothing indicates the seat of the university admission platform, in BTS or in preparatory class, which concentrates the attention of so many high school students stressed by their studies following the baccalaureate and that of their parents. .
For the Monday visit of the Minister of Higher Education, Sylvie Retailleau, a few police motorcycles nevertheless betray the importance of the place, as well as a small label “Parcoursup” on the bell.
The services of the ministry were clear: no question for journalists to give precise indications on the address of the headquarters of Parcoursup. But Jérôme Teillard, Parcoursup project manager for the Ministry of Higher Education, refuses to speak of a “secret” cell.
Data protection
“It is a security issue overall, to secure the work of the agents, they need serenity in their work”, explains the “Mr. Parcoursup” of the government, adding that it is also a question of preserving the data informed by the candidates: their identity and that of their parents, their contact details, notes, targeted training…
“We still manage millions of personal data, so they must be protected,” says Sonia Bonnafé, director of the national service Parcoursup.
In a small office that she describes as “strategic”, four employees are responsible for avoiding possible computer attacks.
However, this is not where we find the famous algorithms to help select students, since Parcoursup does not deal with this part of admissions, managed directly by the establishments. The platform is rather “a messenger” according to Ms. Bonnafé, which makes the link between student requests and the decisions of universities and schools.
In another office, Serge Richard, the platform’s IT director, manages the operation of the interface with his teams. He has seen the post-baccalaureate admissions system evolve, as he worked in the early 2000s on the Admission Prépas platform, which then became Admissions Post Bac (APB) and then Parcoursup in 2018.
“At the start, we only had 700 training courses and 2,000 candidates, it was not the same scale”, he smiles, while 917,000 high school or reorientation students made 11.8 million wishes and sub-wishes this year. , among the 21,000 training courses recognized by the State.
Extra time
The team has thus grown “from around ten to around thirty people, with a little more resources”, specifies Serge Richard.
“I think it was the draw (between candidates to access certain licenses, lack of places, editor’s note) that put an end to APB”, he underlines, considering that the current selection system in function files is now “more understandable for everyone”.
Monday, more than 500,000 students had received at least one proposal for admission, according to the Ministry of National Education. During the bac exams, they were given a little extra time to answer them: until June 15 for general and technological baccalaureate holders and until June 16 for professional baccalaureate holders.
To remind them of the dates, but also to help a student who has changed his mind or forgotten his password, a so-called “functional” team picks up the phone. “We always feel a little worried”, testifies Bruno Maneau, in charge of accompaniment, who deals in particular with foreign students.
During this period of admission, it is more often parents who contact him. “We try to speed things up a bit because it’s a process that can be quite stressful, he says. Between settling in Strasbourg or settling in Bayonne, it’s not quite the same thing”.
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