French higher education at the heart of the ecological transition process

“The ecological and climate crisis calls for a strong action from society at all levels. higher education must play a central role.” This is the first conclusion of the report from an expert group jointly chaired by Jean Jouzel and Luc Abbadie dedicated to raising awareness and providing training about the stakes of ecological transition and sustainable development in higher education. This report was released in February 2022 and leads to strong practical actions announced by the minister herself.

Boosting the process

It is indeed necessary to “boost the process and generalise to all students the training to ecological transition”. The minister insisted on the fact that this effort must “become transversal and global to reach all missions of our institutions”. To reach the forefront, the generalisation of teachings of these stakes must rely on four strong actions:

• adapt existing teachings. The ministry notes that to ensure “a consistent training course”, trainings already available must be changed to include the stakes of ecological transition;
• offer new teachings in courses for all students. In addition to an adaptation of existing teachings, “teachings specific to the ecological transition” will be implemented in 2025 at the latest. In addition, says the ministry, a “base of skills” will be defined to be used as a “compass in the creation of these new teachings”;
• create new courses. New courses will be available to offer training to “the new offices” of ecological transition as part of the France 2030 plan;
• taking ecological transition into account in the overall strategies of institutions. The ministry adds that to reach this, environmental issues must “overcome the contents of the training course and feed the overall strategy of institutions”.

Rely on what already exists

“Of course, we’re not starting from scratch”. As the minister wrote in the presentation of her project, “more and more universities and schools are offering awareness-raising activities, training courses and even courses dedicated to ecological transition”.

In this respect, the association of French university presidents, France Universités, organised on 20 October at the University of Bordeaux a conference dedicated to training for transitions in the presence of the Minister for Higher Education.
The conference led to “stakeholders sharing their thoughts, actions and good practices”, always in the spirit of “accelerating the approach based on the many existing initiatives in the institutions, which are sometimes little known”.

France Universités thus declared that it is “deeply committed”, as are all its members and partners, “to continue to develop a systemic approach, combining training, research, recognition of student commitment, exemplary campuses and energy sobriety”. 

Talking about institutional initiatives

It is these initiatives, taken by the institutions, that the press kit released with the announcements from the Ministry highlights, including those that have been developed:

• At the University of Paris-Saclay, the institution has chosen to include “sustainable development” strategies in its statutes. Beyond this position of principle, the university has set up a compulsory teaching unit on the challenges of ecological transition for all its students in the Licence 2 programme and created a Master’s degree in Transition Governance, Ecology and Societies to train project managers in the respect of an ecological transition of strong sustainability;
• At Nantes University, the institution has initiated a project to develop various actions such as a “responsible and reasoned operation with a positive impact on the environment”, the measurement of its own environmental impact, the creation of a “research and sustainable development” charter with all research structures; 
• At the University of Southern Brittany, which is historically one of the pioneers in this field, new Licence courses are available to students since 2022 on the theme of ecological and societal transition: Sciences of the ecological and societal transition, Sciences, ecology and society, Materials and ecological transition, Energy and environment;
• At the Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT), a first edition of a summer school was organised last July on the IMT Atlantique campus to develop teaching practices and integrate the challenges of the ecological transition: limitation of resources, climate disruption, societal changes, collapse of biodiversity. After this event, teachers now have “methods and toolboxes”;
• In the Ecoles Centrales, the engineering course has changed since the start of the academic year 2021 with the aim of including training activities on socio-environmental issues in the basic courses. The Ecoles Centrales also label projects in accordance with the UN’s sustainable development objectives and value civic or associative commitment in relation to these objectives (through certificates, UE, ECTS credits);
• at the Ecole nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers: an agreement was signed to commit the institution into taking steps to include the challenges of the socio-ecological transition in its programmes and on campus. In particular, the institution wants to “raise awareness and train 100% of students in these issues, offer training to the institution’s staff within two years, and reduce the institution’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30%” over the period 2028-2032.