The facs in France are well known for their laissez-faire attitude vis à vis students' personal work. The faculty personnel has a limited engagement with the integration of the students into the cursus. Combined with the moderate interest post-high school students show this leads to about 50% of the promotion not quite dropping out.(+)

And then there's the 'diplomas for all' aspect which incentivises the faculty to reach out and lower the barrier of passage into the next year, with obvious consequences....

(+) oh the humanities, mostly

fac = faculté, basically a French university.

I guess what the parents refer to is that Universities in France are not as elitist as in other countries; the most prestigious higher education public schools are often considered to be the so-called "grandes ecoles" (engineering schools) or some specific administration/economics schools.