More than 100 French universities and institutes will participate in the French Higher Education Week that started on February 15, and will continue till the 23rd. The French Higher Education Week has been structured as a double Edu France Forum, with two major stages: the student fair and institutional meetings. One institutional meeting was held on the 15th, while the fair will be held on 16th and 17th in New Delhi at the India Habitat Centre. The fair will then travel to Hyderabad’s International Convention Centre on 20th February, and then to Pune on 22nd and 23rd February (on the University campus).
The Edu Fair will include institutes from different disciplines: among them will be business management institutes like ESSEC Business School, Grenoble Graduate School of Business, Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Clermont, IAE Aix Graduate School of Management, Groupe Ecole Supérieure de Commerce Dijon-Bourgogne Euromed Marseille Ecole de Management, ESC Lille, CERAM and Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d'Angers.
In India, the fair is being organized by the French Embassy and Edu France, in a bid to attract Indian students and seek academic partnerships with Indian institutes. Dominique Girard, the French ambassador to India, said, “We are keen to develop joint degree programs, curricula and research programs. We want to have more exchange programs between Indian and French Institutes at postgraduate, research and post doctoral levels.”
ESSEC, that already has a tie-up with IIM Ahmedabad, is one of the participating institutes. With a European outlook, it offers PhDs programs in Business Administration, generic MBA programs, MBA programs in International Luxury Brand Management, MBA programs in International Hospitality Management among others.
Other participating institutes include Grenoble Ecole de Management, Groupe ESC Clermont, Institut d'Administration des Entreprises d'Aix-en-Provence, Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille III etc.
There were panel discussions involving luminaries from the academic world (from both India and France) on the opening day. The Ministry of Human Resource Development, UGC, AICTE, AIU from the Indian side and the French Ministry of National Education, representatives of the Conference of Grandes Ecoles, CPU (Commission des Presidents des Universities), Edu France, the French Embassy, and directors of institutions and vice chancellors will speak on issues stemming from unprecedented globalization trends in higher education.
According to Edu France, in addition to existing scholarships granted by the French Embassy and the Eiffel Grants of Excellence, there will be many more scholarships offered to meritorious students. Elaborating on the topic, Girard said, “Firstly, there is an increase in scholarships by 50% for the academic year 2007. Secondly, we are reorganizing our system of filing visa applications to ease students’ tensions. Our system will work online as well as from Alliance Francaise centres across India.”
Interestingly, students will be encouraged to live and work in France after finishing their studies.
