The University of Burgundy leaves the University of Burgundy Franche-Comté
For a little over a year, relations between higher education establishments – federated within a community of universities and establishments (Comue) called Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (UBFC) – had been strained. But the decision taken Thursday, September 1 by the board of directors of the University of Burgundy (UB) signs the divorce. “The University of Burgundy will end its participation in the Comue UBFC as a member,” said the UB in a press release.
Two main reasons
In its deliberation, the UB invokes two main reasons: “the lack of validation by the state authorities of the proposal for a double head office” (today in Besançon) and the “strategic and structural difficulties encountered in the context of the Comue UBFC” which is emerging after the loss in 2021 of credits from the future investment program (the PIA, €10 million per year earmarked for research).
This decision by the UB is not without risk. In a letter dated last April, Antoine Petit, CEO of the CNRS, called on the members of UBFC to renew the dialogue if they did not want to see the research institute disengage (it employs, in the region, 250 agents and researchers and invests 25 million euros per year).
“A questioning of the commitments that had been made? taken collectively in 2019 and reaffirmed at the end of 2020 by the signing of our agreement would necessarily lead the CNRS to re-examine its positioning at the time of the renewal of our units”, writes Antoine Petit precisely in the letter addressed to the seven establishments of UBFC.
Towards a territorial cooperation agreement?
Will we go, as Vincent Thomas, the president of the University of Burgundy, wishes, towards a territorial cooperation agreement? This solution risks weakening the forces. The regional council, in its research support policy, has transferred all its credits to the Comue. “We need the Comue to promote our research,” said Marie-Guite Dufay, regional president, last June.
“The ministry”, for its part, has “clearly demonstrated that a cooperation agreement could not carry an Academic Intranet Portal”, indicated in the spring the mayor of Besançon, Anne Vignot, in a press release co-signed by the presidents of Greater Belfort, of the Pays de Montbéliard and Vesoul Agglomeration.
In his press release, Vincent Thomas promises to go into more detail on the decision taken by his board of directors during the back-to-school press conference on Friday, September 9.
Alexandra Caccivio