Only after Joseph questioned him in detail did he learn that although doctoral students now paid only 300 Francs in tuition each year—and the royal family provided them with an annual subsidy of 800 Francs—if they wanted to conduct research without restraint and eventually complete their dissertations, they still had to pay an additional 800 to 2,000 Francs out of pocket every year, depending on their field of study.
Ordinary people simply could not afford such a sum, so those applying for doctoral programs were mainly nobles and major capitalists.
Thénard had barely managed to save enough for his studies by working at the Royal Chemical Works, but doctoral advisors preferred the children of nobles or major capitalists. After all, they would not need support from the advisors and might even fund the advisors' experiments themselves.
The universities did have some privately donated scholarships, but ordinary people found them very difficult to obtain. Donors set limits on who could apply, usually restricting them to noble families connected to them.
Joseph had previously seen only the list of nearly forty doctoral students, unaware that only three of them came from ordinary families.
According to Girard, those three also had nobles supporting them to some extent.
Joseph frowned again.
He had worked so hard to promote France's system for cultivating talent, yet it was about to become an educational monopoly before it had even taken its first steps?
He looked at Thénard. "I will look into this matter. Please wait patiently a little longer."
The young technician was overjoyed. He bowed deeply and said, "Thank you, Your Highness the Regent. May God bless you!"
Early the next morning, the President of the French Academy of Sciences and the Minister of Science and Education were summoned to Joseph's study.
Joseph handed the two