Sign up

Have some pie!

Bertrand Monthubert, President, Campus France

Bertrand Monthubert was recently appointed president of the board of Campus France, the government agency supporting student and staff mobility to and from France. He speaks about the organisation’s role to help universities internationalise and its plans to focus on employability in Africa in the coming year.

The PIE: Do you think Africa is becoming more important for French university recruitment?

"When you look at Great Britain and the speeches of Theresa May, they are really a concern for academics and mobility"

BM: Well I think it’s becoming more and more important in the world itself, not only for France. But, yes, especially because of France’s historic links and complex history on the continent. And I think maybe we didn’t pay enough attention to what was going on in Africa. Of course we have in mind the troubles in Africa, but there are also some countries which have had terrific development and very big increases in the number of students and universities.

It is clear that we have to be more active in order to reinforce this relationship and for Campus France of course it is a priority. I think 43% of foreign students in France are from Africa including Maghreb and we want to really be active with that.

The PIE: What does Campus France have planned for 2017?

BM: For Africa, we plan to organise a convention named “Afrique: Destination emploi” at the end of the year. This will be the first event dedicated to employability and entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. Through this two day event, Campus France aims to facilitate the dialogue between institutions and companies both from France and sub-Saharan Africa and to provide students with professional training and internships.

Apart from that, Campus France’s activity has historically focused on the management of mobility itself and very concrete management – students coming and having some social security rights and things like this. But on the other hand, it’s developed very important expertise on internationalisation and it is clear that French universities today have entered a new era.

“Campus France has developed very important expertise on internationalisation and it is clear that French universities today have entered a new era”

The internationalisation process of universities in the world today implies that each university must have a strategy – maybe focus on specific areas or countries or some universities inside these countries. But how do you define these strategies when you are a university or a group of universities? We think Campus France can be a big help in that.

The PIE: How could Campus France expand its role in helping universities internationalise?

BM: Campus France has people in many countries in the world who know very well how it works there – about the culture and institutions. If one university were to say: “Ok, I want to reinforce my relationship with Africa,” we have people in Campus France who know about the area, which zones are maybe easier than others, for instance.

So on the one side it’s having the help of the people in Campus France who have the expertise. On the other side, we have a very strong data department. You have the Note Campus France which provide some very important information to use.

Campus France also organises the Forum Campus France, which gathers all the universities and engineering schools together. The agency is not outside the academic system – it just works in close cooperation with it. As a former university president myself, I would like to reinforce this link between the agency and the university. Campus France is devoted to others – the government and the universities – so that mobility increases.

The PIE: Is there still some resistance among university professors to teaching in English?

BM: You always have some professors that say “I don’t want to deliver my courses in English” but I don’t think that there is much resistance. And to be honest, during the discussion of the law – because this article of the law became legal in 2013 – there were huge debates in France, but not among academics. Most of the time it was only among politicians, but not really academics because academics know that we have to deliver classes in English.

What is important is that our view is not only to sell a product. Being a student is a whole experience. So we say ok, they will come and have classes in English. Today, more than 1260 courses are available in English through the search engine on the Campus France website, but they will also have French courses. We pay attention to how they are integrated into the social life because that’s how they will learn what is France. Not only because their math course is in French. It can be in English or in Portuguese, but if they speak to French students they’ll really get into the French culture. That is what we want.

The PIE: There has been a lot of investment in MOOCS and online education in France. Is Campus France involved in that at all?

“We pay attention to how they are integrated into the social life because that’s how they will learn what is France”

BM: No, we are not directly involved in MOOCs, because you have a department trying to gather universities and schools called Fun MOOC. But of course we are very supportive of that because it can help mobility for two reasons. The first one, it may give some ideas for students outside to say: “Oh I saw this course, it looks very interesting, so what else is there in France?” And maybe they will want to come.

Another aspect I think addresses one of the problems with mobility, and that is perspective. When you go to do a master’s or whatever you will probably have some classes that you won’t have had [previously] because perhaps it wasn’t given at your university. So it’s interesting to have this kind of teaching to prepare students for mobility. Of course, one of the best preparations for mobility is to learn a language, and there are some MOOCS on French as a second language on Fun MOOC which are very popular.

The PIE: So you’ve seen that Fun MOOC is actually helping as a recruitment tool to gain interest to study in France?

BM: Well I think so – I hope so, yes.

The PIE: Do political issues in France affect the recruitment of students?

BM: A lot. We had this very bad experience unfortunately years ago when the Ministry of the Interior issued a circular restricting a lot of possibilities for foreign students. It had an immediate effect, there was a drop in numbers and a group of academics and people discussed this circular and organised some meetings with some foreign students to explain to the government: “Look at what we will miss with that if we continue like this.” It was terrible.

We had some extremely bright students who were just disgusted by France. And I remember an African student who came from a francophone country saying, “Now I say to the other young people who go abroad, don’t go to France, they don’t want you.”

So there is the immediate effect, and it can have some remaining impacts even though the regulations change; this specific law changed in 2012. The first aim of the new Ministry of Higher Education and Research was to cancel the circular because the impact was so big. So the law now states that after a degree you automatically have one year, it may be extended, but at least you have that one year and you can work and then you can see. It’s a much better situation and it’s based on this value of mobility and the conviction of the economic links mobility provides.

When you look at Great Britain and the speeches of Theresa May, they are really a concern for academics and mobility. We are very sad about that to be honest because we at Campus France are promoting mobility in general. This is a strong view for us. So we would prefer that countries be more open to the mobility of students.

“MOOCS may give some ideas for students outside to say ‘So what else is there in France?'”

The PIE: And are you still having visa issues?

BM: I won’t say that there is no issue at all, but it reduced dramatically because of the law about foreigners with the creation of this new visa for students and academics. Because we also had some problems with academics and the situation changed a lot. It doesn’t mean we don’t have some specific problems – nothing is ever perfect, but there was some very great progress.

The motivation for this law was that we want to have mobility. We want to have people come to France because it’s important for us, if we also want to have some students going abroad. We think that mobility in any direction is very important.

The PIE: Sending French students to other countries to study – is that part of your strategy?

BM: The national strategy for higher education has a goal to double the number of students going outside for at least part of their degrees – to have an experience outside. Now we have one third of students who have some sort of experience abroad during their studies, which is quite good but now you have to check what length of period abroad and it’s often quite short.

The PIE: And when you say to double the numbers – what’s the main target in figures?

BM: If you look only at the statistics issued by both the European Commission and UNESCO, there are around 80,000 students going abroad. But it’s something which France does not keep specific track of presently. We know precisely how many students come in but we do not have the information for outbound students, so it’s only an approximate number. When you say only 80,000 it’s for quite long-term mobility, so if you add short-term mobility it’s even higher.

So really I cannot say a figure. The plan is more to make an effort to have more students going out. If you look at engineering schools or business schools, you have maybe 80% or 90% of students who spend at least a few months abroad. If you look at universities, it’s much less and there is a big effort to be done there.

Related articles

Still looking? Find by category:

Add your comment

One Response to Bertrand Monthubert, President, Campus France

  1. Interesting to see that internationalization of Universities courses become current. Deliver classes in English is a very intersting way to touch a lot af students and could also help them to improve their english AND their french (when they talk with french students for example). I would have liked to do it when I was young!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Disclaimer: All user contributions posted on this site are those of the user ONLY and NOT those of The PIE Ltd or its associated trademarks, websites and services. The PIE Ltd does not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify or agree with any comments, opinions or statements or other content provided by users.
PIENEWS

To receive The PIE Weekly with our top stories and insights, and other updates from us, please

SIGN UP HERE