Relaunch of huge Operation Campus funding plan
By Jane Marshall. Five years after former president Nicolas Sarkozy announced Operation Campus, a major initiative aimed at making France a global higher education leader, “no stone has been laid, no building permit registered”, said Geneviève Fioraso, minister for higher education and research, as she relaunched the project last Monday.
The resuscitated project has had a rule change, abandoning private sector funding.
Operation Campus, announced by Sarkozy in November 2007, is an ambitious construction programme devoting increased public investment to flagship institutions.
Pôles de recherche et enseignement supérieur (PRES), regional clusters of universities, grandes écoles and research organisations competed for extra funding totalling over €5 billion (US$6.5 billion).