Learning through research with Idil
Since the start of the 2022 academic year, nearly 80 students have had the opportunity to train through research thanks to the graduate program Idilprogram. On the agenda: courses taught in English, immersion in laboratories, and various teaching units that enable a multidisciplinary approach to education in order to address current societal issues. Agnès-Fichard Carroll and Mathieu Sicard, co-leaders of this program, provide further details.
The Idil courses were launched at the start of the 2022 academic year. What does this program involve?
Mathieu Sicard: The aim of the Idil program is to train students from different disciplines through laboratory-based learning. Students are immersed in the laboratory for six months of the year, with courses taught in English and programs focused on developing interdisciplinarity. Idil also aims to increase the number of international students at the University of Montpellier by making its programs more attractive.
Agnès Fichard-Carroll: The challenge was to develop a program that was highly interdisciplinary, while remaining rooted in a specific field of study: students will graduate with a degree in a specific field, but will have followed a personalized course of study in which openness to other disciplines and their concepts is a major component.
As we begin our second academic year with Idil, can you tell us how many students are enrolled in this graduate program?
MS: As for master's degrees, around 80 students are involved in the Idil program in M1 and M2, across 10 courses and as many different subject areas. As for the engineering course, it involves more than 20 students. The goal was to have 30% international students who had not previously studied in France, which is a condition for receiving an Idil scholarship: this goal has been achieved, thanks in particular to Idil's presence at international fairs. Today, we have students from the United States, Japan, and Brazil writing to us for information about the program and how to apply.
Do you have a typical profile for Idil students?
MS: Overall, we are looking for students who are genuinely motivated by learning through laboratory research and who are highly adaptable, which is essential for pursuing an international and interdisciplinary career path. For example, they need to be able to manage the aspects that are shared between the different programs by consulting with the Idil team, which supports them. Students must be flexible in order to organize their schedules, as incompatibilities are bound to arise. It is impossible to coordinate the schedules of 10 programs in 5 different departments.
AFC: I would like to add that while students need to be curious and flexible, the program also requires a significant investment from both teaching and administrative teams due to its interdisciplinary nature: it was necessary to work on the curriculum as well as the procedures specific to each EUI. This is an opportunity for us to congratulate them on their work: the difficulties have been ironed out, and this has inevitably had a positive impact on the students' progress.
In this regard, how are students supported throughout their studies?
AFC: There is already an IDIL team of four people, a project manager, two educational engineers, and an administrative manager, who do a remarkable job of supporting students as well as teams at headquarters and in the various departments.
MS: In addition to this Idil team, students are supported by two people with research experience: a tutor and a mentor. The academic tutor is only present in M1. This is more of a Professor is there to guide students in choosing their courses, in addition to their immersion in the laboratory. They also support students in their personal M1 project, which involves bibliographic and methodological work that prepares them for their immersion in the laboratory.
And what is the mentor's role?
MS: The mentor, who is involved in M1 and M2, is a researcher or Professor the research component of their work. They supervise the student in their laboratory, as in a traditional internship but in a more in-depth form. Not only in terms of duration, as Idil students spend six months in the laboratory during their first year, but also in terms of commitment, as this internship is not only a research internship but also an immersion in understanding the laboratory: Idil students attend meetings and seminars to understand the life of a researcher. Beyond that, the mentor also undertakes to deepen the student's general knowledge of their discipline, in particular through readings accompanied by articles and dedicated discussion sessions. This allows the student's general knowledge of their field to be supplemented in the laboratory. In fact, the mentor's activity is recognized as equivalent to 20 hours of tutorials, not for supervising the internship but for teaching at the very heart of their laboratory.
Does the student keep the same mentor in M1 and M2?
MS: That's entirely possible, since students can potentially stay in the same lab for their first and second years of master's studies, and why not continue there for their thesis, since there are Idil doctoral contracts available.
AFC: Indeed, a student could potentially remain in the same laboratory for a total of five years. As the IDIL program is research-based, it was also logical for it to include doctoral contracts with the same interdisciplinary nature.
How are student-mentor pairs formed?
MS: At the beginning of the year, during the interdisciplinary summer school, mentors will present their research projects and students will be able to choose. This marks the start of the program. Every evening during the summer school, there are interdisciplinary lectures on topics such as "management and ecology" and "science policy and political science." These lectures are given in English, mainly by researchers from Montpellier, but also by guest researchers from around the world. It is a very interesting time when all the different backgrounds come together and everyone asks questions from different perspectives, origins, and areas of expertise. There is also a team-building day where Idil students participate in activities that facilitate integration. The summer school ends with a gala at the Jardin des Plantes.
Does this summer school enable students to better identify with and "feel" like Idil?
MS: Yes, it's important because during the year they mainly spend time with students from their own disciplines! To help them feel part of the Idil graduate program, there is also a year-round event called the "Idil House Cup." Idil students from different courses are mixed together in different houses and take part in challenges, such as collecting as much trash as possible from beaches, or visiting the Moco, which is also a way of introducing them to cultural elements. The IDIL team also organizes events at least once a month, which gives them a chance to get together.