providing France with a research ranking in the world: such was the ambition of Paris-Saclay. But the project patina, a victim of the differences between major schools and universities…
Nicolas Sarkozy had promised in 2010 : shortly would be born, on the Saclay plateau, a competitor for serious Oxford, Princeton and Yale. Seven years later, it is little to say that the disappointment is immense. “The creation of a great university is to the point of death and the strategy of economic development of the site remains to be implement”, a short, sharp, the Court of auditors, in the month of February last. Little progress has taken place, but nothing decisive has truly been engaged. A missed revealing an evil to be typically French: the cultural divide and almost ideological between the world of the grandes écoles and those of universities.
On paper, however, the challenge is exhilarating: “This is to create the largest european university!”, sums up Michel Berson, author of the report “to Succeed in the cluster of Paris-Saclay”. A major center of scientific research, bringing together public institutions and private institutions. Zero arrogance in the remarks of senator PS of the Essonne. This territory, located south of Paris, focuses well and to him alone of 15% to 20% of the research in the country and can boast having on his ground a few florets of the research and higher education, tricolor, not to mention leading-edge companies such as Thales, Safran and EDF.
The problem? From the beginning, this little world that lives side by side without really work. “The brightest students from the larger schools are not sufficiently in contact with the laboratories. Conversely, the université Paris-Sud excels in basic and applied research, but does not have the address book available to the major schools in the companies”, stresses Pierre Veltz, a former president of the etablissement public Paris-Saclay, and in favour of a logic of “win-win”. Where the desire to promote synergies in establishing a “Paris-Saclay”.
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“The initial distrust has turned to contempt reciprocal”
the Icing on the cake, this new organization would also advance international visibility, while, at the present time, in the academic ranking of world universities of Shanghai, the star of the “plateau de Saclay” do not blink frankly. The best, Paris-Sud, only appears in the 46th place. As for the others, they are relegated to the beyond the 300th… “We might put in the top 20!”, highlights Thierry Mandon, former secretary of State in charge of higher Education.
This has been seven long years that this project, seeming to hit the corner of common sense, is having all the troubles of the world to move forward. No need to look too far for the reason for this dud. The grandes écoles, Polytechnique in head, fear a TAKEOVER of an academic world in which they denounce the bureaucracy, the absence of selection at entry and the lack of links with companies. While in the face, some chieftains of the lecture halls are regarded with disdain institutions frileusement entrenched behind their privileges, sorting their students on the pane, and little involved in the world of research. “Between Paris XI and the X, and the initial distrust has finished, turn in defiance reciprocal”, underlines one of the key players of the folder.
Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Yves Le Drian in 2016 in the Assembléen while their visions of the Paris-Saclay project diverged.
afp.com/DOMINIQUE FAGET
To make matters worse, the political will has failed. During the quinquennium Holland, the Elysée has left to each minister to defend “his” schools. In front of the “small” ministry of higher Education, sincerely favourable to the project, Jean-Yves Le Drian (Defence) has supported the Polytechnique and Ensta ; Stéphane Le Foll (Agriculture), Agro-ParisTech, and a certain Emmanuel Macron (Industry), CentraleSupélec. A further illustration of the lack of authority of François Hollande? “Fake, denies Thierry Mandon. Simply, we can’t promote the autonomy of the universities and force the hand of each other!”
“co-operate does not mean to disappear”
At the end of 2016, Manuel Valls, the Prime minister, has tried to take things in hand. His arbitration? A solution to the two speeds, allowing those who want to move forward, while leaving the more timid stay observers. A perspective that is less ambitious, of course, but it may be more realistic if we want to allow time for mentalities to evolve. “Cooperate does not disappear, stresses Pierre-Paul Zalio, at the head of the Ecole normale supérieure of Paris-Saclay (ex – Cachan), one of the few bosses of high-school friendly approach. Personally, I want to be able to continue to select my students and my teachers, to dispose of own resources and to organize the curriculum of my normaliens!”
“It is out of the question that we lâchions the prey for the shadow, but this operation in two circles we should be, also believes his side Bruno Angles, president of the very influential network of former students of the Polytechnique. The important thing is to talk not about the distribution of power within the new structure, but the project itself.”
The Saclay plateau, in 2013, before becoming a research hub central.
AFP/Olivier Laban-Mattei
A working group has been constituted for this purpose, which comes to make its findings. On the menu: the cestablishment of a university to the status of exception, a “public establishment of scientific, cultural and professional”, allowing its members to retain their legal personality and legal entity for at least five years. To reassure, a priori, the large schools? Not even. “The mere mention of this clause revoyure worried about,” said a good connoisseur of the folder. In particular, it has resulted in the withdrawal of CentraleSupélec, initially seduced. Result: ENS Paris-Saclay, anxious not to be alone in its class in the big project of Paris-Saclay, seeks another solution. And the university of Paris-South, is more isolated yet…
the ball is in The camp of the president Macron
And now? Two scenarios can be envisaged. Version pessimist: the ultras of the two camps dominate the debate and the blockages persist. The axe falls at the end of the year, at a time when the international jury is responsible for selecting the projects of the “excellence initiative” (Idex) renders its verdict. Recognizing the inertia in local, it withdraws the Paris-Saclay from the list and deprive them of the appropriations. A real humiliation, for a site with such potential.
Version optimistic: the avant-garde propagated the concrete actions – increased recruitment of teachers prestigious, sharing of expensive equipment, establishment of courses of study, common, etc – and made progress in the Paris-Saclay in the international rankings. Convinced, the skeptics are joining little by little, this hard core. “If we get tangible results while showing that each can keep its specificity, the big schools will want to join us”, hope Gilles Bloch and Sylvie Retailleau, respectively presidents of Paris-Saclay and Paris-Sud university.
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