Campus France Forum: international influence, sustainable development and social responsibility

The second high-time event of the Campus France Forum year, the Summer Assembly gathered during two half-days of discussions and reflexion about 200 representatives of a hundred French member institutions, representatives of supervision ministries (Ministries of Higher Education and Research, and of Europe and Foreign Affairs), conferences of institutions (France Universités, CGE, CDEFI) and institutional partners (Erasmus + Agency, etc.).

Initiated by Arnaud Giacometti, dean of the University of Tours and host of the event, the Summer Assembly was opened with the Professor’s Speech. François Gélineau, Vice-dean to international affairs and sustainable development at the Laval University (QC, Canada) presented the concerted approach and implemented transversally at the Laval University since the mid-1970’s, for a collective sustainable development.

This speech was followed by a round table led by Mathias Bernard, President of the DDRS/TE Comittee of the Forum as dean of the University of Clermont Auvergne, to continue conversations with Mr. Gélineau, and including: Antoine Doucet, Vice-President of the European University of La Rochelle Université, Ségolène Halley-des-Fontanes - Head of International Relations at INRAe, Simplice Kambou, doctoral graduate, UMR Mivegec in Montpellier and Vinciane Martin, Head of projects Employment and Education at the The Shift Project.

Works of the commissions 2023

During this Summer Assembly, the presidents, vice-presidents and members of the steering committees of the Forum’s Asia-Indopacific, Europe, Research and Doctoral Training and Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility Commissions organised and led four series of parallel workshops (the first two series in the second half of the afternoon on 10 July and the other two in the second half of the morning on 11 July, with the DDRS issue as the common thread).

Bringing together participants in small groups (40 participants maximum), in 50-minute slots devoted to targeted themes, the lively discussions provided an opportunity for representatives of the Forum’s member establishments to share their best practices, questions, needs and sometimes difficulties with the committee members, and sometimes the difficulties they are encountering in terms of “winning back” students from the Asia-Pacific region, attracting the best European talent, setting up co-supervised theses or even climate issues and how they are taken into account in the curricula and/or services set up and offered by the institutions.

A report currently being published will go into more detail on the content of these discussions and the work that will emerge from them, providing input for the development of roadmaps for the Forum's various commissions in the years ahead.

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© Benjamin Dubuis

Results of the Africa commissions’ work

The Summer Assembly of the Campus France Forum was also an appropriate tome to present the conclusions of the work led by the Africa Commission implemented by the Office of the Campus France Forum in September 2017, in preparation of the Ouagadougou speech of French president Macron.

Its work brought together a number of French and African stakeholders and focused on:

1. The identification of factors of differentiating and attractiveness factors of offers from French higher education and research institutions in a highly competitive context of foreign institutions and countries developing dynamic areas of influence through their policies and actions.
2. The implementation of an analysis of cooperation actions and strategies implemented by our institutions with African higher education and research institutions, and the conditions of professional insertion of African students.
3. After this step of study and assessment, a listing of actions taken to broaden and make more efficient and sustainable the deployment of cooperation agreements with African institutions.

And a document of about 15 pages was specifically drawn for presentation and sharing during the Assembly. Though this document must now be completed by members of the commission in consistency of what was announced in Tours regarding specific suggestions of implementation of recommendation, it presents the conclusions of the work led by the commission between 2017 and 2022, focused on 4 areas:

1. Bringing value to the differentiation of the higher education and research offer and the attractiveness of France by leveraging its cultural, social and academic model;
2. Nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of higher education and research institutions, and improve the long-term visibility of their actions;
3. Reinventing cooperation actions to better answer expectations and lift obstacles;
4. Work together in research.

And the Summer Assembly of the Forum was also an opportunity for Campus France teams to present the rich edition 2023 of the Key Figures and events for the second semester 2023 planned by Campus France.

A detailed report of the Summer Assembly of the Campus France Forum will soon be published.