A Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (UTL) promoveu a 8 de março, no Auditório Lagoa Branca do Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (UTL), o workshop «A Fusão entre Universidades: Experiências Europeias», que contou com a presença de vários especialistas de renome internacional nesta temática entre eles o Prof. Jean-Pierre Finance, Presidente da Universidade de Lorraine, França, que proferiu a palestra "Universities merging in France: the University of Lorraine as a case".

1. Universities Merging in France
Global evolution
A Case Study :
the University of Lorraine
Jean-Pierre Finance,
Provisional administrator of UdL
Advisor for Europe of the CPU
Lisbon, march 2012

2. Transformation
of the university -system in France :
work in progress

3. Brief History from 1793 to 2012

4. Birth, death and resurrection
13th Century: First universities in France
1793: suppression of 22 universities
From 1793 to 1968: no real universities in France :
“Grandes Ecoles” (Polytechnique, Centrale,
Mines,…) and independent faculties (law,
medicine, humanities, sciences)
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

5. The “Republic” of Faculties and Écoles:
 Fragmentation of small structures
 Weakness and fragmentation of research units
 Lack of critical mass to face the new challenges of
research  creation of national research bodies:
CNRS created in1930, INSERM, INRA …
 Many competitions between institutions with the
state as single refereee
 Atypical in the context of European and
international trends (Humboltian university)

6. Birth, death and resurrection
 1968: New law (Faure) redefines “comprehensive
universities” as public institutions based on several
principles including autonomy and multidisciplinarity
 Strengths and weaknesses :
– Good intentions:
• The will to create «real universities»
• The will to democratise (access)
– But:
• Over-bureaucratisation and inefficiencies, micro
management by the ministry
• Persistence of fragmentation with 3 types of institutions :
universities (83), “Grandes Ecoles” outside universities
(180), National research institutions (20)
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

7. A wide distribution of
HE institutions on the territory
March 1st 2010 Lisbon, 08-03-2012

8. Trends and Actions

9. Context evolution
Massification (from 600 000 students in 1965 to 2,2
millions today)
New needs and new hopes (society, students, business,
compagnies)
Competition between universities : noteasy to be managed
with a vision of public service
Laws of decentralization : role of the other stakeholders
(regions, other local collectivities) ?
 International rankings (Shanghai, Times ...)
Europe : Bologna process, knowledge triangle
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

10. France has to face many questions to
improve his HE system
How to manage the balance between Competition and
cooperation in the framework of a public service ?
Laws of decentralization : role of the other stakeholders
(regions, other local collectivities) ?
Origin of funding and sustainability ?
How to improve the attractiveness and the visibility of the
French universities ?
How to enhance the capacity of initiative and the efficiency
of the universities ?
What kind of autonomy for the French universities ?
How to reconstruct the universities, and more generally
the HE&R landscape ?
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

11. Main actions developped over the last 20
years
 Four-year contracts between each university and State
 emergence of institutional strategies, notably in
research
 Shared labs with the national research bodies
 Creation of :
 doctoral schools (~ 300),
 incubators to support innovative start-ups…
 poles of competitivity
 National Agency for Research (ANR)
 National Agency for University Evaluation (AERES)
 Emergence of a regional development policy
 Bologna process and Lisbon, 08-03-2012
the creation of the
bachelor/master/doctorate (2002 -2005)

12. Two main Laws for HE&R in France
 LRU : law on autonomy and accountability of the
universities (august 2007), law of decentralization :
 Statutory changes : governance
 HR & financial autonomy
 Funding increased by 1B€ per year during 5 years (in fact
from 2008 to 2009, less in the following 3 years due to the
crisis)
 Law on research (2006) with, in particular, the
capacity to develop cooperation between universities
and between universities and “grandes ecoles”
through the PRES.
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

13. PRES : A strategic approach for
neighbouring institutions
To avoid needless competition  a forum for building
consensus and regulation
To reinforce visibility  identification and
communication
To reach critical mass and increase scientific impact
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

14. PRES : A large diversity
 Various size of territory :
 City
 Region
Inter Region
Transfrontier
 Several type of missions :
 Mutualize the best jewels (labs, doctoral school ..)
 Organize common facilities and services
 Support joint projects
 Prepare the merging
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

15. State of the PRES Today (about 20)
Lisbon, 08-03-2012
15

16. Two important initiatives of the government
 Main objectives :
 To promote “world champions” at international level
 To enhance the scientific quality of the French HE&R system
 Campus Operation :
 Distinguish 12 “campus of excellence”
 5Md€ mobilized for real estate and site architecture operations
 Investments for the Future :
 35 Md€ mobilized, including 22 Md€ for HE&R
 Many call for projects :
 Excellence laboratories
 Excellence research equipment
 Technological Research Institutes
 Excellence initiative
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

17. Two important initiatives of the government
(follow)
 Consequences for the university system organisation :
 For the operation campus : the project leader should be a
PRES
 For the initiative of excellence :
 The main criteria were the strength of the research, the
critical mass and the quality of the governance
 Thus, the last criteria implies an engagement of merging
the institutions concerned, if it was not yet the case.
 Finally, for the 8 winners of IDEX :
 2 of then have already merge : Strasbourg and Marseille
 6 should do the same within the next years (if possible
???)
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

18. The University of Lorraine as a case
study of universities merging

19. The original university
organisation in Lorraine
19

20. Lorraine
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

21. Lisbon, 08-03-2012

22. Universities in Lorraine
Nancy:
 Creation of the university in 1572 (Art, Theology,
Medicine and Law)
1850  1968: 4 faculties (law, medicine -
pharmacy, sciences, humanities) and 6
engineering schools,1 school of management and
3 schools independent of the university (forestry,
architecture, arts)
Lisbon, 08-03-2012
22

23. Universities in Lorraine (3 in Nancy)
Nancy: 1970  2008 : Creation of 3 «real»
universities (public institutions, legal personality)
• Henri Poincaré, Nancy1: sciences,
technology (including 3 engineering
schools), health. 19 000 students, 3 000 staff
including 1 500 academics
• Nancy 2: humanities, law, economy,
management. 18 000 students, 1 300 staff
including 650 academics
• INPL: 7 engineering schools, 3 500 students.
1 100 staff including 650 academics
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

24. Universities in Lorraine ( 1 in Metz)
Metz (60 km from Nancy):
–  1970 A branch of the Strasbourg university
– 1970  2008 : new university, comprehensive (but
without health sciences), no school within the
university, 14 000 students
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

25. Universities in Lorraine (1970 2004)
 Facets of competition :
 Creation of new study programmes leading to
redundancies, especially between Nancy and Metz
 Access to same regional funding sources
 But also aspects of cooperation :
 In Nancy: many research labs are shared
 Graduate schools (écoles doctorales) created in 1999 : 7
out of 8 are shared by the 4 universities
 In 2004 : shared willingness to make more coherent the
education curricula
Lisbon, 08-03-2012
25

26. Why an unique university in Lorraine ?
 To face as one university the national, European and
international competition
 To enhance recognition, reputation, attractiveness
 To promote regional economic and social
development ( Lorraine being in trouble from an
economical and demographical point of view)
 To increase responsiveness based on different
SWOT analyses (demography, economic context,
competition...)
Lisbon, 08-03-2012
26

27. Objectives
 To develop a full comprehensive university,
associating engineering and academic domains, with
two missions :
 International excellence
 Territorial excellence
 To reinforce visibility, transparency and
attractiveness both for education and research
 To enhance the efficiency
 To increase critical mass and scientific impact
 To share, merge and reinforce services and activities
in order to do more, better and faster
To coordinate 2008, Nancy-Université, cooperation and competition
21 June and develop ambitious strategies
Lisbon, 08-03-2012
27

28. A series of steps
 Implementing a coordinated 4-year contract with
the state in 2005-2008 focused on a common
research strategy at regional level
 Creation of the “PRES Nancy-University” in 2007
 A joint project to answer to the “campus call for
project” (2008)
 A decree changed the PRES into a new one at
regional level : PRES of “the University of
Lorraine” (October 2009, still as an “EPCS”)
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

29. Identification of locking risk
 Many fears :
 From the scientific communities (e.g. humanities)
 From the people (e.g. administrative staff)
 Will not lose any privileges/rigths (engineers,
lawyers, doctors ..)
 Willingness to respect the territorial balances
 Oppositions between various visions of the
university
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

30. Cautious approach, progressive and
sustained (1)
 Study the conditions for merging into a new
university : witch kind of organisation and
governance ?
 Need to derogate with the general law (LRU)
partially should be taken into consideration
 Reminding of this project is not imposed by either
the government or by the communities
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

31. Cautious approach, progressive and
sustained (2)
 Design principles :
 Assume and manage internal diversity
 Proximity
 Territoriality
 Accountability
 Internal coherence
 Subsidiarity
 Quality of services
 Reactivity
 Academic collegiality and democracy
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

32. Cautious approach, progressive and
sustained (3)
 To elaborate an original university model
 To involve many faculties and staff members :
 The 4 councils of the existing universities
 A steering group with the 4 university presidents
 A lot of working groups :
 Governance and organisation
 Human resources
 Research
 Education …
 Many discussions with the community
 Communication with stakeholders and ministry
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

33. Cautious approach, progressive and
sustained (4)
 In January 2010 : transition from the “mode
hypothesis” to the “mode project”, with a retro
schedule leading to January 1st 2012
 Prepare the merging
 Future administrative organisation
 New rules
 Process to follow the evolution
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

34. Elaboration of an original
university model
34

35. Let’s recall : Overall Figures
• Students
• Bachelor : 29 500
• Masters : 15 700
• Engineers : 3 500
• PhD : 1 800
• Others : 3 000
• staff :
• Academic and teachers : 3721
• Administrative and technical : 3064
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

36. Let’s recall : Structuration
46 internal components :
Real Estate :
- 10 Engineers Schools 58 implantations
- 8 Polytechnics
- 28 Faculties
Research and Doctoral studies :
- 65 labs organized in 10 scientific domains
- 8 Graduate Schools
Lisbon, 08-03-2012
-

37. First organisational principles
With 45 faculties, Engineer Schools and
Polytechnics; and about 65 labs it was decided :
To accept, but not to oblige the fusion of such internal
structures : more precisely, the fusion should not directly
modify the basic structures of the university (if they don’t
want to do)
To introduce an intermediate structuration in order to be
able to manage such number of basic components :
The collegiums, grouping faculties, polytechnics
and/or Engineers Schools
The Scientific Poles, grouping labs
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

38. A Two dimensional organisation
8 Collégiums
IAEM
BMS
10 scientific poles
MMM
Law
Engineers Health Economy
Humanities
Schools Manag.
38
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

39. Other organisational principles
Toward a single public institution with legal statut
Precisely define the internal subsidiarity
Accept derogation to the law : special statutes of
“Grand Etablissement”
Taking the time to gain the support of the faculty,
staff and students
Double structuration : collegiums and poles
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

40. Collegium
 Beyond the simple coordination and harmonization, it
has a decisive role
 It allocates resources (jobs, credit) that are assigned
among its constituents, maintaining its own share of
budget
 It approves agreements and conventions to matters that
concern them
 Administrative services remain light. It is based on
platforms of site administrative and financial
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

41. The 8 Collegiums
 Engineering Science
Technology
Health
Sciences
Law, Economy, Management
 Arts, Humanities, Languages
 Social Sciences
 Interface
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

42. The 10 Scientific Poles
 A2F : Agronomy, Agribusiness Forest
 BMS : Biology, Medicine, Health
 CLCS : Knowledge, Language, Communication, Companies
 CPM : Chemistry and Molecular Physics
 EMPP : Energy, Mechanics, Processes, Products
 GSC : Geosciences
 IAEM : Computer Science, Control, Electronics and
Mathematics
 M4: Material, Materials, Metallurgy, Mechanics
 SJPEG : Legal Science, Policy, Economics and Management
 TELL : Time, Space, Literature, Languages
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

43. Central Organisation
Board :
President, Vice presidents, heads of the collegiums
and of the scientific poles
Administration Council
Research Council
Education Council
Council of the university life
Senate
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

44. Evolution of Tools and Methods
 First : 4 different ruling process (notably in GRH) :
Process
Political decisions
Huge converging process :
Process  working group focusing on jobs
Tools (information system)
Political choices (bonus,work time, statuts)
Should be followed in 2012 and more
Positive point : Arbitration legal framework
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

45. Administrative organisation
 Part of 2011 has been devoted to :
Préparation of the organising the administrative services
The setting-up of administrative and financial plate-form to
welcome the staff to be reallocated
The new organisation will be set-up progressively in
2012
16 directions
Geographical reallocations, new services
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

46. Agenda (1)
 September 2008 : first steps
January 2010 : « mode project »
January 26th 2011 : affirmative vote of the 4
administration councils
July 26th 2011 : Positive opinion of the State
Council
September 24th 2001: publication of the decree
creating the Université de lorraine
October 2011 : Provisional administrator, provisional
council
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

47. Agenda (2)
 January 1st, 2012 : the Université de Lorraine, is the
single university in Lorraine
January, February, March : elections
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

48. By way of a conclusion
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

49. Some remarks on the process (1/2)
Summon up all Presidents’ energy on political project
and on arbitration on organisation
Fears of various members of the Academic communities
Against LRU in 2007, then … don’t accept any derogation
in 2011! (paradoxe)
Some students : against well established institutions
« grand établissements » because of the registration fees and
selection (December 2011 : summary proceedings from
UNEF at the Council of State)
Fears of changing even if a lot guarantees have been given
 Arbitration to intervene on time scheduled and
composative policy
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

50. Some remarks on the process (2/2)
Complex process, risk of major deadlocks several
times (sit-in in the Management board, National
Councilof the universities, appeals from the students
against the decree, appeals against elections)
A lot of supports :
Local/ regional Authorities
Ministry
EPST (RTO)
Demand to slow down the process but the Agenda
has been respected
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

51. PRES of the University of Lorraine :
Missions (1)
As a facilitator to build the future university :
– To accompany the political approach leaded by the presidents
of the 4 universities
– To support the design and the implementation of the future
university
– To manage many working groups
– To organize the communication
– To Speed up the merger of administrative services
Lisbon, 08-03-2012
51

52. PRES of the University of Lorraine :
Missions (2)
As a federation of universities :
– Organise the strategic development on behalf of the four
institutions
– Ensure the implementation and management of shared
services, resources and equipment
– Prepare the next 4-years contract with the State
– Negotiate contracts with partners, on behalf of the founding
institutions
– Develop activities to increase international visibility
– Promote student mobility within Lorraine and coordinate
student support service
Lisbon, 08-03-2012
52

53. MERCI
OBRIGADO

54. Expected results
Capacity to take into account the great diversity of
French universities :
– Each university should be able to develop its own
strategy, according to the local , national and
international context
– Developing several type of excellence (question :
place of international rankings ?)
– BUT : maintaining a national general framework
based on shared values (education is a public good,
public service …)
Lisbon, 08-03-2012

55. Au départ : une analyse croisée
Plus ou moins Secteurs scientifiques
GSC A2F CPM MMM EMPP IAEM BMS SJPE L2SH
de transversalité G
IUFM
Science
Répartie s
« Grandes » composantes
1 Ecoles
1
IUT
0
5
0
10 Santé
0
20
0 Droit
Eco.
Effectifs EC
Gestio
n
SH
Concentrée
L.L.
Lisbon, 08-03-2012
08-07-201030-04-2010
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