the project of a new university, proposed by the school of the Nobel laureate Jean Tirole, provoke surprise and rejection
The Toulouse School of Economics’ proposal to create a new university directed by the TSE, the ISAE-SupAéro caused surprise and incomprehension, but also very strong opposition. The presidents of other Toulouse higher education establishments denounce “the brutality” of an “isolated initiative”.
Whether they are teachers or, their first reaction to the student project revealed by the Director General of Toulouse School of Economy, Christian Gollier, was that of surprise. “There is something irrational about all of this“Jacques considers Py, professor in social psychology at the University of Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès and representing union Supper Research. Irrational, because this proposal comes a few days before the presentation of the conclusions of the working group responsible for bringing together higher education and research establishments in Toulouse (Haute Garonne) into a single university.
“I understand that for some all this is not going fast enough, recognizes Jacques Py. But we have to go step by step. We will not achieve anything if everyone does not meet in an overall logic. Compromise is indeed difficult.“ Face to the difficulties encountered to advance “a dysfunctional collective project“, for the teaching-researcher, this project is quite simply”not a good idea“.
For Clément Varenne, responsible for the administration and management of the school of doctors at the University of Toulouse and representative of the UNSA union ITRFBIO, the proposal to create Toulouse Tech University, in partnership with the University of Toulouse 3, Toulouse School of Economy and theISAE-SUPAERO is dangerous”: “he recycles the old demons of the Uniti project, presented twelve years ago, in order to obtain the Idex label. It carries with it a real denial of university democracy with in particular a board of directors composed mainly of external people, located in Paris. The main goal of this project is to position itself in international rankings.“
On the side of student unions, the position is the same. Already opposed to any idea of merging Toulouse universities, the general student association of Midi-Pyrénées (Agemp) is also “against the Toulouse Tech project University“. “What we see is that at no time, whether for the single site project or for Toulouse Tech University, do we talk about students, training and teaching conditions., explains the president ofAgemp, Océane Ranjeva. Only research is mentioned. “
The elected to the Board of Directors of the University Paul Sabatier highlights what she considers problematic: if Toulouse School of Economics, created by the Nobel Prize for economics Jean Tirole, has just left the University of Toulouse 1 Capitol, to whom would the 50 million euro building go? After having avoided being placed under supervision for budgetary problems, should the University of Toulouse Sabatier not rather clean up its finances? “before committing anything”.
Same story, within the UNI union: “We are against this project, se position the president of UNI Toulouse, Léo Skalecki. We receive that it is unsustainable and inconsistent. TSE is unable to exit UT1 this way. “ But the law student retained nevertheless that the proposal of a governance with legal persons turns out to be “interesting“.
A stillborn project? “It is very unlikely that it will succeed and that it will be labeled“Clément Varenne analysis. “This project is not supported, adds Océane RanjevaL. It is even refused by a majority. We are also afraid of the tensions that all this can cause between the different players in student life.“ UNI does not believe in the realization of this project either. For its president, “it is a blow in the anthill finally welcome. He must push the federal university to get back to work in order to offer a coherent project.“
In a press release released on Monday, January 10 in the afternoon, the presidents of other Toulouse higher education establishments denounce “the brutality” of an “isolated initiative” and reject the possibility of participating in this project which “would sign a deep fracture of the site “.
According to information from France 3 Occitanie, Jean Tyrol recently presented his project to the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron. “If the government validates and imposes it, it would be ignoring all university democracy, slice the representative of UNSA ITRFBIO. These instances would serve no purpose. For this project to be possible, a decision by the board of directors is necessary.“
Toulouse 1 Capitole University and Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier University are due to vote on this in the coming days.