Opponents are demanding the center be requisitioned by the state to become the 14th public university of the Paris region. Leonardo da Vinci is backed by many large companies and is intended to prepare students for specific commercial and technical careers. Students will be expected to spend much of their four-year program gaining work experience with participating companies. Although the center will have a faculty of 40 resident professors, companies will be providing part-time teachers in specialized fields. There also will be three postgraduate institutes in cultural management and economics, the environment, and project engineering.
Critics charge the center is elitist because it is fee-paying and therefore open only to the rich.
About one-third of new students have obtained reductions. Leonardo da Vinci is meant to offer students an alternative to the overcrowded state universities and the elitist grandes coles. The particularly good baccalaur at pass rate meant that an extra 18,000 school-leavers won a right to a university place. Higher enrollments have brought financial problems to many institutions. At Rouen University, students in the science faculty went on strike in support of the faculty's dean, who claimed there was no money to buy any teaching materials.