One of France’s most prestigious universities was forced to shut Thursday after student protesters staged a campus occupation against government plans to make public higher education less accessible.

All classes were canceled and riot police could be seen outside the campus Thursday after protesters — several dozen, according to students — began their sit-in following a meeting on Wednesday night, while a memorial to Normale Sup’ staff and students who died in World War I was scrawled with anti-police graffiti, prompting some to express their anger on social media.

Coming just as undergraduates begin their summer exams, the sit-ins have caused major disruption, including in Strasbourg where protesters blocked 700 language students from sitting a test Thursday, prompting an angry standoff with security guards.

Macron’s government wants to introduce more selective criteria as an attempt to allegedly tackle overcrowding and high dropout rates at university. Protesters say the plan is an attack on France’s egalitarian tradition of offering a public higher education to all.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe expressed amusement at the idea of students at the “Normale Sup'” in Paris — part of a separate tier of highly selective top universities known as “grandes ecoles” — joining the movement. “It’s quite charming, given the extremely selective nature of the Ecole Normale Superieure,” he said.

Founded during the French Revolution, the Normale Sup’ counts giants of French philosophy including Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault among its alumni.

Three of France’s 73 public universities are currently blocked completely — in the cities of Toulouse and Rennes as well as the Paris suburb of Nanterre — though this is down from around 15. Some faculty buildings at other universities also remain occupied.

In the northeastern city of Nancy, police scuffled with around 30 students trying to block an amphitheater at the arts and social sciences campus where students were due to take an exam on Thursday.

The student protests have added to a mood of discontent in France among various groups opposed to Macron’s reforms, as Thursday saw the latest of a wave of strikes launched in early April by rail workers protesting against Macron’s planned privatization of state operator SNCF.

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