"The Academie Francaise, faithful to its vocation as guardian of the language and its evolution, wishes to draw attention to the dangers of a measure that appears as a technical application, when in fact it promotes the marginalisation of our language," it said in a statement.
Conservative MP Jacques Myard, who sits on the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee is just as adamant. "I will vote against this proposal," Myard told the Herald. "There is no need to teach in English in our universities. Foreigners who want to be taught in English will prefer to go to America, New Zealand or England anyway. It is [wrong]."
Fioraso's plan has the backing of a powerful group of six scientific researchers and university heads, including Nobel-winner Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, who helped identify the virus that causes Aids.
"International exchanges of researchers and students are vital for keeping our research and innovation at the highest world level, and they stimulate our economy. They also strengthen France's image and place in the world," they said in an open letter to the French daily Le Monde.
"Those who speak out in the name of defending the French language seem completely out of step in our view, given the current state of universities, and they are also seriously counter-productive as far as the interests of France and the French-speaking world."
Fioraso's plan is to essentially legalise a process that has begun by stealth. Under a 1994 law aimed at protecting the national linguistic treasure, universities are barred from teaching in anything other than French, the exceptions being for foreign language courses or for visiting professors.
But as more and more colleges in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia siphon off income from foreign students - and raise their international profile as a result - by teaching in English, institutions of higher learning in France are under growing pressure to follow suit.
Since 2010 the prestigious state-run Paris Institute of Political Studies, one of the country's elite "grandes ecoles", has been teaching economics, international relations, law, history and political science in English. Foreigners now account for nearly half of the school's 10,500 students and pay fees of up to €13,000 ($20,600) annually.
Fioraso's plan is to extend the exceptions so professors can teach in English if the course is part of a European programme or is in partnership with another university. According to Fioraso, only 1 per cent of courses would be affected by the change.
French universities have a low international ranking. According to the Times Higher Education survey for 2013, the highest ranking French university comes in at 76; seven British and 28 American universities rank in the top 50.
The United Nations agency responsible for education, Unesco, notes that France attracts around 260,000 foreign students annually, placing it fourth internationally after the US, Britain, and Australia. Almost a third of foreign students come to France from Morocco, China, Algeria and Tunisia. Second-tier French universities charge around €570 tuition annually.
In comparison, Britain hosts around 390,000 foreign students, with almost a quarter coming from either China or India. Foreigners pay on average £15,000 ($28,000) tuition.
As education budgets come under increasing strain, an easy source for additional funding comes from foreign students, considered the economic elite. The OECD estimated in 2012 that more than four million students enrolled in higher education outside their home countries, compared with just over two million in 2000 and 1.1 million in 1980.
The shift towards English in France addresses only part of the problem, especially in state universities as opposed to the elite schools, the "grandes ecoles". Many have a reputation for overcrowded auditoria, lazy or indifferent tutors and diplomas that either have no equivalent in universities outside France or much relevance in a fast-changing employment market. The yearly teaching requirement is 126 hours for a French university professor, compared to a minimum of 270 hours for most of their American counterparts.
'We have seen an evolution towards an international-based approach to degrees. But two problems remain for getting students to come to France. One is the language barrier; another is an embarrassing disparity in terms of resources at public universities in France compared to the US," says Marlowe Hood, an American journalist who lectures at the Institut Francais de Presse at the University Paris II.
Much of this explains why at least 55,000 young French people study abroad each year.
Keeping strict limits on courses in English, says Hood, will hinder French students eager to plug into the global grid.
"If France wants to isolate itself, they will pay the price, because there will be less mobility in an increasingly globalised economy,' says Hood.
