"To be at the heart of the European Higher Education and Research Area".

As part of its efforts to promote its international reputation, the University of Montpellier will be taking part in the 34th edition of the of the European Association for International Education (EAIE)which takes place in Toulouse from September 17 to 20, 2024. This not-to-be-missed event is considered Europe's leading annual meeting place for international exchanges in higher education. To mark the occasion, François Pierrot, vice-president in charge of international relations, talks to us about the UM's international strategy.

What are the priorities of UM's international strategy?

As an experimental public institution bearing the I-Site label, the University of Montpellier plays a pivotal role for the partner institutions. For international activities, as for other university activities, the strategy is built in consultation within the consortium.

During the probationary phase of the Muse project (2017-2022), we chose to build a strong visibility on the Africa / South America / South-East Asia zones in order to establish our reputation as a scientific portal for the countries of the South. This approach was consistent with two key factors that illustrate this openness to the global South: a marked attractiveness to students from these zones and a very high co-publication rate with scientists, a consequence of the specific missions assigned to some of our partners such as CIRAD andIRD.

Partnerships within Europe are also on the increase?

From 2022 onwards, in view of current developments in Africa and Eastern Europe, cooperation within what can be described as the Global West seems set to take on renewed strategic importance: Europe, of course, but also North America, Japan, Australia... It's not at all a question of neglecting the Global South, as Montpellier will remain one of the French sites most focused on the African continent, but of adding another pole of interest.

How do these orientations affect the University's various missions?

The international dimension already permeates many aspects of university life. Research has long been an activity in which international collaborations are the norm, as evidenced by co-publications with foreign authors. Student mobility is also very dynamic, with around 15% of UM students coming from abroad, and over 1,000 supervised outgoing students per year.

Where do these students come from?

Exchanges are marked by their asymmetrical nature, with incoming flows predominantly (2/3) from the global South and outgoing flows mainly directed towards the West (90%). Doctoral training benefits greatly from contributions from abroad, accounting for over 40% of doctoral students. It should also be noted that some courses are taught in English. An emblematic example is the original IDIL Master's program: in English, interdisciplinary, with a very high percentage of foreign students.

Does the international dimension force us to think differently about tomorrow?

In the future, we will undoubtedly have to move towards a fully internationalized university, i.e. an establishment where not only teaching and research are deployed in an international context, but where all the departments that support these activities are also imbued with interculturality, open to foreign languages, and so on. For example, as part of the 2023-2025 Contract of Objectives, Means and Performance (COMP), training courses have been set up to help teacher-researchers who wish to teach in English, and mobility stays abroad for all staff have been widely deployed.

What role does theCharm-EU alliance ofEuropean universities play in this strategy?

This exceptional partnership enables us not only to be at the heart of the European higher education and research area, but also to deploy a veritable "laboratory of innovative practices", where we can test in real life, with students and enthusiastic teacher-researchers, what tomorrow's internationalized university could be.

What are the UM's other major partnerships?

The University of Montpellier, in agreement with its partners in the I-Site consortium, has defined a series of strategic partnerships by distinguishing, in a given country, the actor(s) with whom there were already proven scientific exchanges, notably co-publications, and with whom it seemed reasonable to envisage student exchanges, sometimes unidirectional, sometimes bidirectional. Some of these university partnerships are long-established(Sherbrooke in Canada, UCAD in Senegal, Kasetsart in Thailand, Heidelberg in Germany...) and others are just emerging (Arizona in the USA, São Paulo in Brazil...).

The internationalization of training courses seems more necessary than ever in a context of advanced globalization. What is at stake?

Welcoming foreign students is essential for their own benefit, of course, but also to create a rich and stimulating intercultural atmosphere for all students, wherever they come from, including Montpellier. Teaching in a foreign language, mainly English, also has this dual objective: to facilitate access to our courses for non-French-speaking students and to enrich the skills of French speakers. It is essential to integrate international issues into the various training curricula, and to use course materials from a variety of origins. And let's not forget trips abroad, which the international relations department and the international relations offices of all the components are actively developing, thanks to financial resources provided by the Region, the State, Europe...

Key figures for international business at the UM

  • more than 7,000 international students for a total of more than 51,000 students;
  • 40% of doctoral students are foreign (from over 100 countries);
  • co-publications with over 160 countries;
  • in the top 200 of the Shanghai ranking.