Toulouse Tech University, the opposite of TSE on the merger of universities
Three weeks before a decisive deadline for the project to regroup Toulouse universities, the Toulouse School of economics takes its partners on the wrong foot and launches the idea of a Toulouse Tech University. An alternative and more selective project that also wants to be more ambitious.
Christian Gollier, the director of the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE). Only a few months after the adoption of a text that founds the principle of a regrouping of universities and colleges within a new University of Toulouse and only three weeks from a joint application of all the partners to the call for projects “Excellence in all its forms”, this one announced, this Saturday, January 8, 2021 on social networks, the launch of a project for a new independent university: Toulouse Tech University (TTU).
Objective: the top 100 of the Shanghai ranking
A smaller-scale project (only Paul Sabatier University and ISAE-SUPAERO are currently proposed as partners) but which is more ambitious. “Toulouse Tech University aims to join the top-100 of the Shanghai ranking”, assures the director of the school founded by Jean Tirole.
1/5 Faced with the announced academic downgrading of Toulouse, the presidencies of the University of Toulouse 3 and of the Toulouse School of Economics propose to create the Toulouse Tech University, in partnership with ISAE-SUPAERO.
The project is described here:https://t.co/GwRSyaxzHY pic.twitter.com/wTOI2QlPVL
– Christian Gollier (@CGollier) January 8, 2022
However, this pole of excellence project presented as a response to the “announced downgrading of Toulouse” is cringe on the side of the Federal University. Indeed, this structure, which brings together 31 higher and research establishments from the Occitanie region, is already working on a project for a new University and has seen the grass somewhat cut from under its feet.
“This project was built in relative secrecy during the holidays”
“We were made aware of this project only a few days ago. We are all the more surprising that in December we confirmed the principle of a collective and unique application for the “Excellence in all its forms” call for projects. This alternative project was built in relative secrecy during the holidays ”, deplores Philippe Raimbault, the president of the Federal University of Toulouse. But, beyond the “brutality of the method and the schedule of its publication”, it expresses reservations on the legal and political levels.
A legal pitfall for Toulouse Tech University
First of all, he recalls that the TSE is not an autonomous entity but a school integrated into the University of Capitole Toulouse 2. It cannot therefore unilaterally initiate such an approach nor emancipate itself from its university. guardianship. Or, the board of directors has already spoken in favor of keeping TSE within it. And Hugues Kenfack, the president of Toulouse Capitole University is one of the signatories of a press release judging “prejudicial” and on the contrary to “principle of university democracy” the Toulouse Tech University project. A situation which legally prevents the realization of Christian Gollier’s plans.
The risk of a lose-lose
In addition, the presidents of universities and structures excluded from Toulouse Tech University are worried about a project which, if it saw the light of day, would involve a “dismantling of the Toulouse Capitole University” and a “deep fracturing of the site. “. While all the partners were working, on the contrary, on a unified university project. “It is unthinkable to abandon the project of a new University in favor of that of Toulouse Tech University. We are determined to continue on this path and we hope to rally all the players, ”insists Philippe Raimbault.
“It would be a mistake to maintain the two projects”
For him, only a reverse on the part of TSE and the withdrawal of the TTU is possible. “It would be a mistake to maintain both projects. Everyone would lose. We must strive to converge on a single project. If this is not the case, we will have less chance of succeeding during calls for excellence projects, ”he warns.