Interview. Why is the president of the University of Rouen leaving office, in full term?
Through Mathieu Normand
Published on
The president of theUniversity of Rouen (Seine Maritime) Joel Alexandre steps down. The announcement was made this Thursday, January 12, 2023. Arrived in September 2016 in this position, and re-elected in December 2020, he therefore leaves before the end of his second term. A decision “considered for a year”.
He is preparing to “finish his shift” with the assurance that “the helm will be held” by future generations in business. This departure “which is done in a serene way”, before the election of a new president on January 27, is an opportunity to look back on his years of commitment within the university with their share of achievements, but also regret.
It’s time to think about his own
News: What motivated your departure?
Joel Alexander: It is an extremely passionate function, which requires personal and family sacrifices. At some point, it’s time to think about your own. In 2020, when I decided to commit again, we were in the middle of a pandemic, we hadn’t finished the site contract which will be signed in a few weeks, it would have been quite irresponsible from my point of view to do not do.
The current sequence is more favorable. Now that a lot of things are on track, other colleagues need to take over. I’m retiring. I will finish in “back-office”. I was engaged nationally on a number of things as president. And a few other issues are close to my heart. I think I will help a few colleagues to make them progress.
“We had to accelerate the use of digital technology”
What will you remember from this presidency?
JA: I am convinced that the link between training, research and innovation must be very close. I tried to act so that this triptych works better and more.
This has resulted in the organization of the establishment by not having in the team colleagues specialized in research, others in training, but colleagues who take charge of both in given disciplinary sectors. .
The other red thread that animated me is to consider that all the issues and challenges that we have taken up could be taken up through trans and multidisciplinary approaches. That’s what started the Cop Herl research project after the Lubrizol accident. I hope that this direction is anchored is what will be the signature of the University of Rouen.
Your mandates have also been marked by the pandemic, which has changed the situation…
JA: Security issues have been on my mind since my first term in 2016, even before the pandemic. We must remember that we were at the time in the midst of a risk of terrorist attack. We had an incident at Pasteur which led me to close the site. This decision had not been easy, but had pushed to recruit personnel for all these aspects of security. We have also invested in video surveillance. Things that have become fairly innocuous now, but weren’t back then.
And then there was this long period from March 2020. I was the first of the university presidents to advocate wearing a mask and to say that we were going to organize the start of the school year with it. I was a bit of a black duckling with exotic ideas, but it all blossomed eventually.
We had to greatly accelerate the use of digital technology. What struck me was the wealth of our human resources in the midst of the pandemic. If it hadn’t been for the commitment of many colleagues, I believe that this period could have been even more difficult. This period has made our relationships, teaching practices and our way of seeing things evaluated quite a bit.
“The means per student have continued to decrease”
What is your feeling about student precariousness and that which affects staff?
JA: During the pandemic, it was a financial precariousness and a moral difficulty for many students, who met alone, when it is a period of life when we are there to exchange. It remains today. It is linked to the context since last March in terms of the cost of living. 43% of our students are obliged to have a small job, this also has many consequences on our organization and our way of working.
In my functions here and in my national responsibilities, I have tried to act on these issues. If I had one obvious regret, it is that we did not succeed during the electoral period that we experienced in 2022 to weigh a little on the national debate.
Compared to other countries, higher education and research are relatively rarely in the limelight. The means per student have continued to decrease since 2009. For Rouen, it is the supervision ratios that have deteriorated.
In recent years, we have also seen calls for projects develop…
JA: Generally speaking, many people denounce the evolution of the ecosystem. I denounced him as president and that I will be freer to denounce him tomorrow. Today, we have to respond to calls for projects in all sectors. On a precariousness among our staff who accumulate, because we are understaffed and under-supervised, but also because the financing obtained in the calls for projects only allows us to pay contract workers. We are oscillating towards an Anglo-Saxon model.
All this imposes dramatic situations on us, because behind these are skills that we are losing and on a system that puts us in competition. Even if the competition is not what scares us, it is a lot of energy and expense.
For many, it is also a change of profession. When you want to be a researcher, it’s to conduct your research, be in your lab and not to respond to calls for projects or become a manager.
Is it just a question of resources?
JA: It’s not just a question of means, but our dear politicians don’t realize that we are training generations who are shaping the country’s future. We are not a country that benefits from the raw material or deposits, its strength today is the training of its young people and the entire population.
The work that we have been able to do in these different years for lifelong training is also a form of pride. I have always considered that the period when the pattern perceived by many – you train, you work and you enjoy your retirement – is largely over today. We must position higher education and research on these issues.
“The university is not appreciated at its fair value”
Do you have any other regrets?
JA: I will leave with the feeling that the presence of the university is not appreciated and seen at its fair value, compared to other cities where it is a real institution. Some are beginning to take it into account, in particular the Métropole which has now found considerable resources.
Commitment must be made on both sides. We have formed a number of partnerships with the municipalities in which we are deployed. In Mont-Saint-Aignan for example, it was a first to open the laboratories to the inhabitants.
With a budget of nearly 260 million, as soon as one euro is put in, it’s almost four euros in compensation for the territory through salaries, the fact that students consume, travel. While we are seen more as a cost center, with students making noise, rather than as a real dynamic place preparing for the future.
What main challenge awaits the future president?
JA: The difficulty we are experiencing as we speak is financial. We voted a 2023 budget in deficit and vulnerable to the energy crisis. We are going to double our energy expenditure between 2023 and 2022. We can do it once, because we have enough working capital to fill these holes, but it must be used to make other investments, in particular real estate. , amenities, etc.
The only resources we obtained in the CPER (State-Region plan contract) are for the library. Sur is not the owner of our premises, over 300,000 m², but on the duties of the owner without being. Maintaining buildings that are not in their prime is one of the big difficulties.
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