Lieux et formes de pouvoir

In politics and social science, power is the ability to influence people's behaviour. In order to live together members of a community accept rules, regulations, laws. This helps to create social cohesion but can also lead to conflicts and tensions.

We can take as an example the power of the media or the power of money.

To what extentis the debate over selective admission to university linked to the issue of power ? We will see that the university is a seat of power an elite institution holding power : the power granted by knowledge and by money.

At first, university tuition fees are extremely high in the United Kingdom and United States and are rising steadily. For example, in 2010 a new law was passed to increase these fees. That's the subject of a video we studied. Thousands of students are protesting against this law, which will increase inequalities between rich and poor students. The law will affect future students: a lot of them won't go to university or they will have to face huge debts.

These extremely high costs are a source of debate within students themselves. We studied the document "Guardian article : For or against the rise of tuition fees? Students have gathered in Great Britain to discuss this subject. There are two points of view that are defended. Some people are in favour of social justice that would allow everyone to have access to education. And others believe that the high costs of university access are necessary to ensure quality education.
So we can see that universities have great economic power because they impose these tuition fees, which seem to increase social inequalities. In this sense, they are the power over the future of students according to their wealth.

Universities provide access to quality studies and more recognized professions, so it is the power of knowledge and education that is at stake with this selection.

It seems that access to knowledge depends on social class. Indeed, university studies allow access to more recognized professions such as manager in a company or doctor. But if access to university is only possible for students from wealthy families, access to these professions also becomes possible. 
As a personn said in the debate on guardian article it’s a vicious circle : the richer will get richer because they will have good jobs the poorer will stay poor there will be no social mobility. Thus students are tempted to study abroad. This is the case, as we saw in the report "U.S. students studying in Europe", by Andrew Giebrend, a 27-year-old American engineering student who chose to
complete his master's degree in Munich, Germany, where the university he attends costs almost nothing compared to what he would have had to pay if he had stayed in the United States. Between 2013 and 2016, Germany experienced an increase in the number of American students by 20%. So if knowledge is power, students are ready to express their dissatisfaction on the streets of London, for example, or even to study abroad.

Thus through selection for university access we have seen the power of universities: the way they enable students to integrate into society. their power is expressed through the power of money. Finally, the struggles over school fees are struggles over the power of knowledge.



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