The Toulouse School of Economics will become an autonomous “large establishment”
It is a shock in Toulouse higher education. One of its most famous characteristics, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) founded by the Nobel Prize winner in economics Jean Tirole, will obtain the status of “large establishment” which will make it independent of the University of Toulouse 1 Capitole. The Minister of Higher Education and Research Frédérique Vidal received the president of the university and the director of TSE on February 28 to discuss the terms.
“The decree will soon be published for a launch of the large establishment at the start of the 2023 school year,” says Christian Gollier, general manager of the TSE foundation. We will become autonomous for recruitment, budget, selection, scientific policy and registration fees. We no longer depend on a university institution that does not understand our requirements for attractiveness and international competition! »
The Toulouse School of Economics was born in 2011 from the industrial economics research department created by Jean-Jacques Laffont and Jean Tirole. The Jean-Jacques Laffont-TSE foundation endowed with 100 million euros was created in 2007 to enable the best international researchers by paying higher salaries. With its 150 teacher-researchers and high-level researchers, the school ranks 9th in the world for economics research departments in the RePec ranking. It hosts 2,500 students, a third of whom are foreigners.
9th in the world
“We have created a Rolls-Royce in research but we must also be able to offer top-notch training to students, says Christian Gollier. But we lack the administrative staff to follow them and it is the university that decides to recruit teachers. »
The change in status is not to the liking of Toulouse 1 Capitole University, which has just built a building for TSE research which cost 50 million euros and deplores the lack of consultation. “We have to review the minister and if the decision is upheld, we are appealing to the Council of State,” says Hugues Kenfack, president of Toulouse 1 Capitole University. We must reinforce excellence when there are teams like TSE, but we must also understand that we must support as many people as possible towards this excellence. What would we do with undergraduate students? »
The autonomy of TSE was announced when the Toulouse universities submitted a project for a federal research university in February to the call for Excellence projects of the program of investments for the future. Deeming the file not specific enough, TSE set up an alternative project with the ISAE-Supaero engineering school and the Toulouse 3 science university. But the boards of directors of the Toulouse 1 and Toulouse 3 universities voted against, this which accelerated the decision to take autonomy.