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The academics are up in arms in an uncertain battle... Once more, the question of university’s future is being brought onto the social stage. In 2007, both university presidents and trade unions had accepted deep institutional changes — autonomy of and competition between universities. But an amendment to the law defining the status of a teaching researcher made at a time of political opposition to the government generated unprecedented reaction among both professors and students: strikes, various demonstrations, lectures being replaced by critical presentations... Only the future will tell us whether this was yet another surge of revolutionary emotion or a real step in developing an alternative policy.