The spectre of the re-organisation of the higher education system following the Bologna accord spurred the authorities to look at how the two systems could be brought closer together.

If the aims of Bologna were portability of qualifications between universities in different countries, then they should at least be portable within France.

The conclusion of the Helfer committee was to align the two systems at the master level. The systems diverge strongly at the undergraduate level.

Universities award bachelor degrees after three or four years, but students at the Grandes Ecoles take two years of preparatory courses, before embarking on a three-year course.

After these five years of study, they receive a masters, but at no point are awarded a bachelor’s degree.

The 40 or so Grandes Ecoles are working towards splitting their three-year programmes to enable graduates from other universities to enter the programme for the final two years.

But Prof Helfer insists that in the case of Audencia, those with only a three-years’ bachelors degree from a French university will not be admitted.

Other Grandes Ecoles offering masters programmes are more lenient on this point, but Prof Helfer, and the other top schools, are adamant.

He refers to the preparatory system as the “royal way” into the Grandes Ecoles. “In our schools we syphon off the best 1,000 minds in a generation. During these preparatory classes, the potential of these young people is pushed up like turning up the heat under a pan.”

At present these classes are taught in the lycées, not in the business school, and the students are taught a range of subjects, not business. There is a growing view in France that some business should be taught in the second year of these programmes.

One issue that refuses to go away is how the Grandes Ecoles’ diplomas should be renamed in line with the Bologna agreement.

Most of the schools have chosen to call the programme a master of science. The third big Parisian school, Essec, has called it an MBA.

Prof Helfer says: “Can we give an MBA name to young students without professional responsibilities?”

Though Prof Helfer believes so strongly in the French system, he is also spearheading Audencia’s drive to become a European business school, recognised internationally.

Recently the school received accreditation from the Association of MBAs in London. The school already has accreditation from the other two international accreditation bodies, AACSB in the US and EFMD in Brussels.

Audencia is now one of a handful of international schools to hold triple accreditation.