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Several works of sociological research have focused on elite courses in France from various approaches. In the 1960s and 1970s, the research on grandes écoles, conducted by Bourdieu and a team of researchers, threw light on the main divisions between various institutions of higher education, on the importance of reproduction, and on the effects of the social and academic domination of the grandes écoles. In the late 1980s, a network of researchers challenged this set of explanations and started to study the internationalization processes. The recent changes in the grandes écoles question the idea of fairness. The authors have reviewed the current changes and suggest a new approach. A sociological analysis is developing: aware of the changes at play, not reducing all explanations to power struggles, and taking account of the demands for fairness.