Internationalisation of French
universities : towards an
integrated management ?
Patricia Pol
Vice président Université Paris-Est
Bologna expert
OECD, December 9th 2008
Outline
• A strong tradition of cooperation and
attractivity at national level these last 20
years
• Contributing to the implementation of an
administration of European and international
relations at the institutional level
• Moving to a more strategic international
management for the next decade through
coo-petition strategies
OECD, December 9th 2008
I. A strong tradition of
cooperation and attractivity at
a national level
OECD, December 9th 2008
I.1 The attractivity of foreign students
- A long tradition
100 000 in 1976, 160 000 in 1990 (2d country after the US and
before the UK and Germany
170 000 in 1993 : after the US and UK
since 2000 : 3rd or 4th range (225 000 in 2006, 12% of the
student population) after US, UK, Germany
- A definition based on nationality , around 75% being mobile
without a French Baccalauréat
A large majority coming on an individual basis
- The importance of history
More than 50% come from Africa
OECD, December 9th 2008
International students (2006)
(Foreign student without a French Bac)
Africa
47% ( 157%)
Europe
24%
(32% in
1996)
( 51%)
160 000
122% in
10 years
America
7% (10% in
1996)
( 58%)
OECD, December 9th 2008
Asia
22 %
( 275%)
I.2 A voluntarist national policy
• The Ministry of Foreign affairs has a specific
department for Higher education and
scientific cooperation
- 100 M grants (boursiers du gouvernement
français)
- Bilateral programmes (exemple with Brasil
since 1978: Cofecub extended to many
countries and programmes)
- Capacity building funds for developping
countries (Fonds de solidarité prioritaire)
OECD, December 9th 2008
• Creation of National agencies
- 1960 : CIES (centre international pour
étudiants et stagiaires) Egide
- 1998 : Edufrance to promote HE
- 2005 : Centre d’études pour la
France CampusFrance
- 2008 : towards a Mobiliy agency
resulting from different mergers
OECD, December 9th 2008
- The regulation of institutional services
In the 1984 law for higher education (loi
Savary): international cooperation is
one the mission of the universities
which are supposed to organise a
specific department for foreign students
- The contractualisation policy
1990-2005 : « le volet international »
OECD, December 9th 2008
I.3 The determinant role of the European
policy
• 1987 : Eramus
France is at the second place for
incoming and outgoing students
(23 000/year)
• 1998- 99 : the Bologna process and the
LMD reform (2002)
- New curricula, new recognition tools,
new partnerships
OECD, December 9th 2008
Outgoing mobility (2006)
Western
Europe
78%
3%
Central
Europe
France
70 000
15%
North America
OECD, December 9th 2008
Asia
4%
II. Contributing to the implementation
of an administration of European
and international relations at the
institutional level
OECD, December 9th 2008
Some common trends since the
90’s
*
• Nomination of vice president or « politic actors » in
most of the universities since 2000
• Development of « international relations »
departments at a central level and faculty level
- dealing mainly with mobility (in and outgoing) at
undergraduate and graduate levels within
cooperation agreements
- with an average of 5 administrative staff
Strong differenciation between individual and
organised mobile students
OECD, December 9th 2008
- Difficulty to articulate training and research
international policies
the individual and the laboratory levels being
the reference for research
Creation of « Europe departments » for
European research tenders
- However the impact of the Bologna process
on the curricula, Europe is not the priority in
the interntional policies
OECD, December 9th 2008
III. Moving to a more strategic
international management for the
next decade
OECD, December 9th 2008
• When the international dimension is not
anymore a context but a condition of research
and teaching
- It becomes part of the whole institutional
strategy
- And will be integrated in the whole
departments and services of the university :
academic affairs, student services, research
services, finance, professionnal services,
human resource management...
OECD, December 9th 2008
- International staff recruitment
- International student recruitment at
each level (BMD)
- International programmes for
evevybody at master and doctorate
levels whatever the institution
 Reshaping the international divisions
through expertise functions
OECD, December 9th 2008
• Developing strong strategic cooperation and alliances
- At a regional level :
* European : beyond 2010
Going on implementing the « Bologna tools » and
articulating the EHEA to the ERA
Encouraging more intra European and external mobility
(horizontal and vertical) (see the target of a 50%
mobility for the group age 16-24 for the UE)
* Regional clusters : PRES (pôle de recherche et
d’enseignement supérieur)
OECD, December 9th 2008
- At an international level
• being active in international and
regional associations
• belonging to scientific networks
• Developping international paths and
joint degrees and with strategic partners
(example of HEC with MIT and Fudan)
• Strenghening international alliances
OECD, December 9th 2008
Conclusion
• In 20 years, internationalisation has shifted
from an individual basis to an institutional
dynamics through more professionalised
international divisions
• Although the context leads to more
competition and fastens the main trends, the
experience of strong cooperation strategies
could become a competitive advantage for
any profile of institutions
OECD, December 9th 2008
Main references
• F.Barthélemy, C.Musselin, P.Pol, « L’internationalisation des
universités, analyse comparée des politiques et organisations
de l’international », Rapport DEPP, décembre 2008.
• Notes de CampusFrance « l’organisation des relations
internationales dans les universités en France », 2006
• Rapport du Conseil d’analyse stratégique, Encourager la
mobilité des jeunes en Europe, orientations stratégiques pour la
France et l’Union Européenne, juillet 2008.
• Report of the High level expert forum on mobility, july 2008
OECD, December 9th 2008