Brexit sometimes provokes unexpected reactions. On the London campus of the French University Dauphine-Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), which opened in 2014, when the British capital was arguably at the height of its attractiveness, the exit of the British from the European Union posed a serious administrative headache. 1er January 2021, when the United Kingdom officially left the single market, the approximately 200 undergraduate students in London, mainly French, needed a visa…
It was not just a formality. “It was a lot of paperwork, with a very long procedure”sighs Cécile Sansalone, the director of the London campus. Ask Juliette Sens what she thinks about it. This student saw her visa application disappear in the limbo of the administrations, before finally being released shortly after the start of the school year in September 2021. “It was very stressful, and I arrived a few weeks late. »
Since March, Dauphine-PSL can finally breathe. The London campus has obtained accreditation from the Office for Students, the independent public body that regulates higher education in England. The process was long, and a certain number of practices had to be adapted in order to meet the required criteria. But, now, Dauphine-PSL students in London can obtain a three-year visa, the time of their license.
Paradoxically, this accreditation, necessary to meet the need for students, suddenly opens up new opportunities. The London campus of this Parisian university can now bring in students from all over the world. Since a visa can be issued, why not recruit Chinese or Indians? Administrative necessity has become a possibility of openness.
“The internationalization of the university is one of our strategic axes”, confirms El Mouhoub Mouhoud, the president of Dauphine-PSL. Out of promotions of about 90 students per year, only three or four students did not come out of a French high school a few years ago; there were seven of them last year (from September 2021 to June 2022), and the goal is to reach fifteen next year, explains Maximilian Hoell, the director of the license program in London. And this is how this small London island of French higher education intends to open up to the world and enter the great game of competition for the best international students. “This presence in London is important for the promotion of French culture and scienceargues El Mouhoub Mouhoud. Having a French university here is not neutral. » Listening to him, it is a question of projecting abroad a certain idea of French education and elitism.
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