Feature: Studying the French way

A made-to-measure range of courses

The number of Asian students coming to France has tripled in five years; there are, for example, eight times as many Chinese as previously, a total of 9,000 people in 2005, representing the fastest growing group of foreign students. This development is explained by promotion campaigns and the setting up of high visibility partnerships. Korean Min-Jung, a student at Paris-III, explained the reasons for her choice. "Compared to other countries, university here is virtually free. Student status in France is much more secure, with social security, housing benefit, etc.." France has other major advantages: academic excellence, qualifications of recognised value, language support and an increasing number of courses in English.
French university co-operation is based as much on educating elites as on scientific excellence and is seen as a partnership and an integral part of the construction of a European education and research area.

In the industrialised countries (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand), French "scientific diplomacy" is part of today’s great debates: climate change, sustainable development, etc., favouring the mobility of researchers and joint research work.
With the countries of what we call the "zone de solidarité prioritaire" [priority solidarity zone], which in Asia includes Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, it supports national scientific capacities and works for programmes suited to their needs (training engineers in Vietnam, for example).
For the major emerging countries of Asia (China and India), specific instruments are deployed. For instance the Arcus scheme, soon to be extended to Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos, enables regional scientific consortiums to develop research training courses in which many different bodies work together. A substantial and attractive network of co-operation that meets a growing demand for education and training, has been set up; the Paris Institut d’Etudes Politiques [institute of political studies], the École Centrale [a prestigious school of engineering], the French technical universities and the Réseau ParisTech (engineering network) are all firmly established in China.
In Japan, more than 180 inter-university agreements are aimed at awarding bursaries and learning the partner’s language (a joint French-Japanese doctoral college and the Colibri programme for high-school students). Oceania too is contributing to this drive, with 200 inter-university agreements for Australia and an increased number of bursaries in New Zealand.