Moves by the French government to privatise universities has seen mass protest from students all over the country.

The protests began at the end of last month and last Friday 41 universities were disturbed, with more protests expected to follow. Students took to the streets with transparents saying: "University is not an enterprise" and "We are not for sale". 30 universities were completely blocked, as agreed by students in votings at the General Meetings.

The Minister of Higher Education, Valérie Pécresse, told the news channel LCI that the strikes are detrimental for students and explained that the new higher education law had been agreed on in the summer. She met with UNEF, the National Student Union to discuss the problem, but no agreement was reached. Bruno Julliard, the UNEF president, has called for wider participation in the movement.

Student protests have coincided with strikes by railway and metro workers, civil servants, teachers and opera and theatre staff. The indefinite railway strike has been in the centre of attention of both the media and President Sarkozy. Many students see the university blockades as ill-timed and counterproductive.

Barbara Pomiechowska, a student at the Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3 told The Journal: "There are two factions: the first one believes that the only way to make the students’ voices heard is to blockade the universities. The others think that Sarkozy will not pay attention anyway, and blockades can only harm the students. I believe that this time the blockades are indeed idiotic as hardly anyone notices them. Some other way of protest is needed."

Desite Ms Pomiechowska's skepticism however, blockades have been successful in the past. In 2006 when the students protested against the First Job Contract that would have let companies fire employees under 26 that had been employed less than two years for any reason. The government saw the law as a way of combatting unemployment among the young and resisted the protests from February until mid-April, but eventually agreed to scrap the law.