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For the 2019/2020 academic year, the Ministry of National Education as well as the Ministry of Solidarity and Health established the numerus clausus for the second common year of medical studies (PACES) at admissible candidates. In other words, out of the total number of students enrolled in the first year of medicine, only a limited number could advance to the second year the following academic year. This numerus clausus, or "closed number," was instituted to limit the number of future doctors, pharmacists, midwives, or dentists in relation to demographic needs in France. This limitation was established following the May 1968 protests, which allowed access to higher education for all high school graduates and made higher education free.
Faced with the massive influx of new medical students and under pressure from certain teaching unions and the Ministry of Budget, the numerus clausus was introduced in the early . In 2018, Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Solidarity and Health, announced a reform of the university medical system and the removal of the numerus clausus starting in 2020. However, access to the second year is still conditioned on the results of other students; universities now set the number of places instead of the ministries.