To go abroad students demand more safety

The international opening of the campus is changing radically the face of French higher education and the lives of students, André Siganos.

More mobile French students, more and more foreigners on the campus of the hexagon: French higher education is to convert to the international

The international is transforming our higher education. We were not a large country home, there is still a decade. However, today, we are the 3rd or the 4th country in the world for the number of foreign students present on our soil. The number of young Chinese studying in France, for example, still grew 10 in one year while it tends to reduce Germany and Great Britain. And the internationalization of the campus modifies radically the lives of students. "Incoming" mobility double also "outgoing" mobility Each year, of 45,000 to 50,000 of our students are studying abroad, which puts us in the 6th or 7th World rank for student mobility. And learning of languages, whatever we say sometimes, French youth have made significant progress. This is a movement, which is amplified by the reform of the University and Campus plan.

What award this major shift

Several elements have played. First, an increasing number of students, have become aware that international mobility is an important factor in career success. They are also more confined to the single European framework and do not hesitate to go study in Asia, in the US, in Australia... Europe is our domestic market: to the limit, a stay in another country of the Union is more seen as a "real" international experience. Then, businesses are looking for more in addition to "multicultural" profiles and encourage movement. The internationalization of our campus is also an element of additional attractiveness for foreign students: thus begins a virtuous dynamic. It has positive effects for our entire economy: by training the foreign elite, we weave with privileged links, for several decades. This is what is called "soft power". Finally, in General, the blows of battering of globalization, and especially the international rankings such as the University of Shanghai, have pushed our institutions to open up.

Schools and universities walk they all the same not

Non. Schools, commerce and management, appear in the international opening advanced. Most of them impose their students a significant stay abroad and their students are at least bilingual French-English. But universities are catching up a large part of their delay for some very quickly.

Is it to say that the movement is now inevitable Or well still brakes, and which

Paradoxically, at the time where all the players seem to have become aware of the need for the international student, observed that the French youth leave less. The curve tends to pack. To go abroad, students demand more safety. Whether the training that they will follow, organization, school or home, quality hosting, formalities... On all these points, they want guarantees. And they expect their stay a return on investment. They become more and more demanding. It is an evolution clear, characteristic of a generation. There also the same behavior in a number of countries in India, in China, to the Canada... To deal with, the Germany has mounted a programme called "Go out", to encourage its students to leave. On our side, we have created a site to answer questions from students. Curious as it may seem, international mobility, which is on everyone's lips, is hampered by psychological and cultural factors. And the economic crisis could still stop the movement.