Little is known of the legal and administrative framework of evaluation of French universities. As the results of evaluations have some influence on higher education programs offered to students, it is useful to present and analyse the various schemes. We focus on evaluation of university programs, management and finance. Each type of evaluation will be defined in relation to its legal and regulatory foundations and situated with respect to the social and economic context of its creation. The various aspects of published evaluations are then presented and their results critically commented.