Trois universités de technologie (UT), celles de Compiègne (UTC), de Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM) et de Troyes (UTT), viennent de s'unir pour offrir plus de mobilité à leurs étudiants, tant en France qu'à l'international. Des opportunités de professionnalisation pour les jeunes futurs ingénieurs, qui ont eu la chance d'être admis dans ces établissements de plus en plus attractifs.
Les universités de technologie de Compiègne (UTC), de Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM) et de Troyes (UTT) ont déposé fin mars les statuts de leur nouvelle association. L'occasion leur était également donnée de se réunir en Assemblée Générale, au cours de laquelle elles ont pu discuter de leur avenir commun. A terme, il s'agit de "mettre en réseau thématique numérique tous les UT, pour partager les expertises", affirme Alain Storck, président de l’UTC et premier président du groupe, au Parisien Etudiant. Suite de l'article...
Voir aussi Universités: Belfort-Montbéliard s'allie à Troyes, Fusion en projet des Universités de technologie, L'UTSEUS: l'Université de technologie sino-européenne de l’université de Shanghai.

By Lauren Sausser. Charleston Mayor Joe Riley held a series of three meetings last week attended by top administrators of both the College of Charleston and the Medical University of South Carolina about potentially merging the two centuries-old institutions.
“The response was overwhelming and extremely positive,” Riley said. “People were very enthusiastic. It’s like the light bulb went off.”
He said Charleston needs a comprehensive research university with undergraduate, graduate and doctorate-level programs to realize its economic potential and compete for new business with other research-rich regions around the country like North Carolina’s Research Triangle and Austin, Texas. A merger of the two schools isn’t a new idea, but has taken on new urgency, he said. “It moved from a nice thing to have to an imperative.” Read more...

Blog Educpros de Pierre Dubois. L’université de Lorraine résulte de la fusion au 1er janvier 2012 des universités de Nancy 1, de Nancy 2, de Metz et de l’Institut Polytechnique de Lorraine. La fusion s’accompagne d’une rationalisation tout à fait logique. Elle a par exemple introduit des structures intermédiaires entre l’université et les anciennes composantes: sept collegiums ont ainsi été créés dont le collegium Arts Lettres et Langues, le collegium Sciences humaines et sociales. La fusion engendre évidemment des conflits, ceux-ci étant d’autant plus acérés que la situation financière est dégradée.
Fusionner et rationaliser. Le Département Arts et Culture faisait partie, avant la fusion, de la composante Sciences humaines et sociales de Metz. Suite à la fusion, il est rattaché à l’UFR de Lettres et Langues, elle-même rattachée au Collegium Arts, Lettres et Langues.
Le département proteste et dénonce le « caractère arbitraire, incohérent et injuste de cette décision et la rejette avec fermeté » (courriel du 19 février 2013). La rivalité historique entre Metz et Nancy refait surface: « pourquoi nous obliger à rejoindre les lettres et les langues, pendant que les enseignants et les étudiants de la nouvelle formation de licence en histoire de l’art, proposée par Nancy à partir de la rentrée prochaine resteront dans le Collegium Sciences Humaines et Sociales en vertu de leur rattachement disciplinaire à la 22ème section (histoire contemporaine)? Pourquoi ce qui vaut pour nous ne vaut pas pour les autres? » Suite de l'article...

By Jamil Salmi. A study of recent university mergers in Russia confirms some of the findings presented in my 2009 book “The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities” about the difficulties of constructing top institutions following the merger approach.  Igor Chirikov, senior researcher at the Moscow School of Economics, reports that the various programs of excellence launched by the Russian government since 2005, which “encouraged” many universities to merge, have achieved mixed results. For the past 7 years, the Russian government has actively sought ways of enhancing the performance and contribution of its leading universities.  It initiated the Federal University program in 2005, followed by the Innovative University program in 2006, and the National Research University program in 2009.  In many cases, setting up the new federal universities involved mergers. Read more...

By Roger Moore. The draft letter of expectation that the provincial government recently sent to the University of Alberta is great cause for concern for those who value the benefits of research. Research is essentially an assembly line: at the forefront there are fundamental researchers extracting the raw knowledge about the nature of the universe. These knowledge breakthroughs are then refined and processed by applied researchers to create the technological breakthroughs that industry then takes and uses to create devices and processes that increase our standard of living. If this were the oil industry, applied research would be a refinery and basic research would be the prospectors and drillers who find, extract and feed the crude oil to the refinery. Nobody would ever suggest that we stop prospecting and drilling for oil and focus purely on refining, because once the existing reserves ran out, the refinery would shutdown. Read more...

By Janet French. Just seven months into office, University of Saskatchewan president Ilene Busch-Vishniac says provincial government officials have twice questioned her about the "efficiency" of running two teacher training programs in Saskatchewan.
Busch-Vishniac said she has faced questions from both the treasury board and a group of government deputy ministers about why the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina both need colleges of education.
One deputy minister - who the president wouldn't name - told Busch-Vishniac it was "so inefficient" to have two university education programs running in the province. Read more...

Renforcer la visibilité à l'étranger, recruter davantage d'étudiants internationaux, réaliser des économies d'échelle…, tels sont les bénéfices à venir de la création d'une direction internationale commune à six écoles de ParisTech. Une étape importante qui scelle la volonté du groupe à toujours aller vers plus de coopération.
Six des douze écoles d'ingénieurs de ParisTech sont concernées par le projet de création d'une direction internationale mutualisée: l'Ecole polytechnique, l'ENSTA, Télécom, les Mines, l'ESPCI et AgroParisTech. C'est Christophe de Beauvais, actuel directeur des relations extérieures de l'Ecole polytechnique qui prend la tête de cette direction mutualisée. Suite de l'article...

Some years ago, the university I work for merged with a further education college about 30 miles away. The merger posed some immediate challenges for staff: public transport links to the college were poor; for those without a car, journeys required a train and a bus, and the return journey took more than two hours.
My university had an emerging solvency problem at the time. I suspect that part of the rationale for the merger was the fact that the further education college was solvent - but, as it turned out, only in the short term. The merger was short-lived.
In the end, the university closed the further education campus and the work of the college was transferred to another provider. Careers were disrupted, and staff working in the college had to live through the unsettling transition of merger, demerger and remerger with a new partner in a very short space of time. Read more...