numerus apertus

How is the number of places set?

Each university proposes the number of students it will admit to each health course, taking account of its teaching and placement capacity and of the health needs of its territory. The proposal is examined with the regional health agency and set within multi-year national objectives. The result is a figure that varies from one university to another and from one year to the next, instead of a single national ceiling fixed in advance.

What changed compared with the numerus clausus?

The earlier system fixed a national ceiling, which made the first year a pure ranking exercise. The present system keeps a limited number of places but ties it to local capacity and to demographic need, and it accompanies a diversification of routes through PASS and LAS. The Latin wording marks the intention: apertus, open, in place of clausus, closed.

What does this mean for candidates from abroad?

Selection has not disappeared. A candidate from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia or Belgium is still applying for a limited number of places at a given university, and the figure for one city says nothing about another. This is why families comparing routes look at medical faculties in other EU member states, where admission is organised by the university itself and the degree leads to practice in France through automatic recognition.

A common misunderstanding

The word open is often read as unlimited. It is not: places remain capped, and the cap is now decided closer to the ground. A second misreading concerns the published figures. A number announced for a university covers a given course and a given year, and it is not a national promise of places or an indication of how selective admission will feel in practice.