From Annecy to Puy-en-Velay, the Catholic University of Lyon is spreading in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
What is the project of Ucly in Haute-Loire in Puy-en-Velay?
It is a modest project in its size with 25 students. We responded to a request from the Region, the municipality and the agglomeration of Puy, to set up professional training in tourism, in partnership with the CCI de Haute-Loire. It is a “Bachelor” type training in apprenticeship, which will concern young people from local high schools, BTS,
We were very well received by the local elected officials who made an entire floor of the Hôtel-Dieu available to us, which is a historic site in Le Puy. Former youth tourism in a 16th century building takes some relief. The heritage of Haute-Loire is very rich, with the cathedral, the Chaise-Dieu, Brioude, Saugues etc.
What are your re-entry numbers?
Our goal is not to number, but to keep our promise, which is to provide personalized support for students, tutoring. We must limit ourselves to 6% growth by a maximum. We are at 1,660 first year admissions in 2021-22, which is a bit higher than last year, and a bit above our expectations.
We’re going to hit 8,000 students / students this year, when I got there we were at around 6,700. In detail, we have about 1500 students in bio-sciences, 1500 in law, 850 in psychology, in letters 500, in LEA 500, in management 1500, 250 philosophers, 250 theologians…
We also have 4000 foreign listeners who have not yet all returned this year because of the covid.
What about your establishment in Annecy? And why this city?
Annecy, quite simply because we were approached by the local public authorities, and that we established a legal agreement with the Savoie-Mont-Blanc University, of which the former president was very involved, before my arrival. We also train bachelor of management students. We consolidate these two disciplines before installing others.
We started last year with 70 students and we have a capacity of 1000 students. We have just this year (2021-22) to integrate our new premises. This makes it possible to irrigate the territory and limit study costs for a certain number of students who can continue to stay with their parents, and in fact, limit travel to Lyon.
In addition, we noted that many had a professional project in the Savoie / Haute-Savoie region, which is very dynamic economically. It takes between three and five years to get a university up to speed.
You have just created a “vulnerabilities” university chair, can you tell us more?
If a Catholic university is just a private university, then it is useless […] We choose to put our values of sharing from the Gospel into dialogue with contemporary society, which sets up absolute autonomy as a model in an ultra-liberal model.
The covid has shown us that everything is vulnerable, the hospital, the economy, the law (we already specialize in vulnerable people in law), etc. Several Lyon personalities from the economic and political world have joined the guidance council.
On February 3 and 4, we are organizing a conference for the general public with decision-makers, politicians, economic and social actors. Louis Gallois, former president of the SNCF, should give the opening conference and Esther Duflo, Nobel Prize winner in economics, should give the closing videoconference.