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Universities: a powerful trump card for diplomacy of influence

The traditional Summer University of the Conference of University Presidents (CUP) held in late August in Versailles, gathered institutional stakeholders of higher education to work on the globalisation of universities.

Campus France was also present for the two-day work that focused on: How to design an international policy? The idea was to foster thinking about the place of France in the world and the role universities may endorse to improve the country’s rank.

In her opening speech, Frédérique Vidal, the minister in charge of higher education, reassured stakeholders by saying that she was determined to make higher education and research a “powerful trump card for diplomacy of influence

She underlined her decision to “develop a strong strategy to improve drawing power” through a new “Bienvenue en France” plan (Welcome to France). The plan aims at improving welcome conditions for international students, and Vidal stressed that it “paved the way with concrete steps towards the improvement of the drawing power of our learning courses abroad”.

A sound improvement, according to a provisional report of the pre-consular step for applications and processing of files by institutions, showing an “increase of accepted applicants to 100,000 from 97,000 last year (+2.4%).” 

In addition to the speech, many other brought attention on several themes related to internationalisation during the Summer University, such as outward mobility, European universities or cooperation and strategies of institutions.

To know more:

- Speech of the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation: http://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/cid144462/universite-d-ete-de-la-c.p.u-discours-de-frederique-vidal.html

- Work report of the CUP:

http://www.cpu.fr/actualite/universite-dete-de-la-cpu-des-pistes-pour-construire-une-politique-internationale/

 

Photo credits: © Danielle Bonardelle


 

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Published on: 13/09/2019 à 09:19
Updated : 19/09/2019 à 17:19
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