Merger of universities in Toulouse: TSE goes it alone, but UT1 has not said its last word
The president of Toulouse 1 Capitole University Hugues Kenfack met the Minister of Higher Education on Monday, February 28, to reaffirm his disagreement with the granting of large establishment status to its TSE component.
The divorce is almost consummated between the Toulouse 1 Capitole University (law, economics) and its main component Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), the school of economics founded in the 1980s by the Nobel Prize winner in economics Jean Tirole.
Who would have thought, a year ago, that TSE would now become a lone rider by dissociating itself from the major project led by the Federal University of Toulouse, which brings together 35 higher education establishments, called TIRIS (Toulouse initiative for research impact on society) and which must be examined by the international jury of the fourth future investment program (PIA4) next May.
At the key of this program, more than 100 million euros for the Toulouse Initiative for the impact of research on society, French translation of the acronym TIRIS.
While the University of Law praises on its website the merits of its TSE component, which allows it to be classified as “the first French university and the 22nd internationally in the controversial Shanghai ranking”, now the the school of economics has just obtained the approval of the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation Frédérique Vidal to obtain the status of “Grand establishment”.
A legal status that will give TSE legal personality and educational, scientific, administrative and financial autonomy.
“The transformation of the TSE school into a large establishment, indicates the school in a press release, is the logical continuation of the dynamics initiated 40 years ago on the Toulouse site. Winner of numerous national and international calls for projects (one of the main providers of ERC grants at national level, Nobel Prizes, international rankings, numerous prestigious prizes in economics, etc.), the TSE community still has great potential for development in research and higher education”.
A new turning point for TSE which is not to the taste of the president of UT1 Hugues Kenfack. The latter went to reaffirm it, Monday, February 28, in front of Frédérique Vidal. The announcement to confer the status of large establishment on TSE “had not been preceded by any consultation, indicated Mr. Kenfack. It creates a precedent which calls into question the autonomy of all French universities because from now on any component would have the possibility of destructuring its university by obtaining the status of large establishment”.
He also reminded the Minister that “Toulouse Capitole University conceived of its excellence as the mixing of large masses of students to lead the best towards internationally recognized excellence, while offering many and varied perspectives to all”.
The case has not yet been applied for TSE and UT1, which reserves the right, as Hugues Kenfack reiterated, to “seize the required courts (…) if this ministerial initiative were to be confirmed”.
Underhand, some saw in the initiative of TSE the influence of Jean Tirole with the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron to whom, according to certain sources, would have been presented the initial project carried by the school of economy and baptized TTU “Toulouse Tech University” alongside Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier University and Isae-Supaero.
An aborted project, after the vote of Paul Sabatier University for the TIRIS project. From now on, it is certain, TSE will walk alone, after having taken up residence in a brand new building of 50 million euros financed entirely by UT1.
Emmanuel Macron’s position
The announcement by the Ministry of Higher Education to confer on the TSE school the status of a large establishment “is in contradiction with the position defended by the President of the Republic in his speech before all the university presidents on 13 January 2022”, recalls the Toulouse Capitole University: “It must be said, in France, we have integrated and we have accepted for too long a model at several speeds, with moreover a form of dogma there too which had installed (…) The Grandes Ecoles and research organizations were supposed to deal with excellence and the training of the elite, and the universities with the democratization of higher education and the management of the masses. This system is scalable. It is gone first because it does not correspond to international competition, because its very form creates barriers, segmentations that are ineffective. »