What sort of future do you see for young people in France today compared to their American counterparts?

On May 12, 2006, the New York Times published an article entitled “Higher Learning in France Clings to Its Old Ways.” The journalist paints a grim picture of university education in France, quoting one disenchanted graduate of Paris-Nanterre who calls the universities nothing more than factories.  The complaints may be legion, but solutions do not come easy in a society used to having the state pay for everything. What sort of future do you see for young people in France today compared to their American counterparts?