Inauguration du premier Campus international partagé de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne à Fès
On Thursday, October 15, the Euromed University of Fez (UEMF) and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne inaugurated their shared international campus, located within the UEMF eco-campus.
The inauguration ceremony took place in the presence of Mostapha Bousmina, president of the Euromed University of Fez, and Christine Neau-Leduc, president of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, as well as representatives from both institutions and prominent figures from the academic, institutional, economic, and social spheres, who gathered in the Moroccan university’s Blue Amphitheater.
This event marks a new phase in the academic partnership between the two institutions, which began in 2016. Over time, this partnership has expanded to include joint degree programs, dual degrees, and scientific projects with an international scope. Beginning with the launch of a distance learning program in political science—leading to a dual bachelor’s degree—the partnership was further strengthened in 2022 with the creation of a Franco-Moroccan master’s program in business law, followed by a second dual-degree master’s program focused on “Mediterranean and African policies: mobility, migration, and transitions.”
A New Platform to Strengthen Cooperation
Located in the heart of the UEMF eco-campus, this new space is designed to bring the academic communities of these two institutions closer together and to facilitate the development of joint projects. As Christine Neau-Leduc emphasized in her speech: “This first shared international campus marks a new milestone in the international development of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, whose ambition is to create true regional hubs for teaching and research in the humanities and social sciences. These are open spaces where students from all over the world—from a wide variety of countries—can come together, exchange ideas, work together, learn, and enrich one another.”
The Shared International Campus will therefore bring a new dimension to the collaboration between the two institutions. Designed as a space for convergence between the academic communities, it will foster the development of joint degree programs, student and faculty mobility, the implementation of research projects, and the emergence of new academic initiatives. Opportunities are being explored, in particular, in the fields of management, history, law, and political science, as well as around contemporary themes such as artificial intelligence and its interactions with society.
Through this project, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and Euromed University of Fez affirm their commitment to building a sustainable partnership based on the exchange of knowledge, scientific dialogue, and the bridging of academic cultures.
Three Questions for Bertrand Simon
Bertrand Simon is a professor of political science at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and at Euromed University in Fez. He has been involved in this academic partnership since its inception and is delighted with the new dimension it is about to take on with the inauguration of the Shared International Campus.
How long have you been teaching at Euromed University in Fez? Why did you initially agree to get involved in this academic partnership?
I’ve been teaching at UEMF since the partnership’s first year. I agreed to do it, first because I place great importance on international cooperation, and second because I enjoy challenges—and creating a political science bachelor’s degree program from scratch as a dual-degree program with a foreign partner was definitely one. And then, there was another reason: when I first spoke on the phone with the project leader from UEMF, she introduced herself, and I said to her, “Well, that’s funny—I once had a student at Paris 1 named Sanae Kasmi, too!” And she replied: “Yes, that was me.” Forging a partnership and creating a dual degree program with one of your former students doesn’t happen every day, so it’s an opportunity you can’t turn down—especially since it was her attachment to Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne that led her to reach out to us in the first place.
What stands out to you about the early years of this partnership and how it has evolved?
When we started, we had only nine first-year students. They were all enthusiastic, motivated, and curious, driven by a deep joy of learning and happy to find in this dual-degree program exactly what they had come looking for: knowledge, high standards, a dual cultural perspective, and so on. I saw that same enthusiasm and joy in studying in many of them later on, and their numbers grew as enrollment increased.
I also saw the student body become more diverse year after year: while the first cohorts were exclusively Moroccan, they later became more mixed, incorporating students from sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, when studying in our bachelor’s program, students aren’t simply immersed in a Franco-Moroccan environment, but in one that bridges Europe and Africa, with each culture enriching the other. Today, I eagerly await the launch of our upcoming dual-degree master’s program, which will allow students to continue their studies at both of our universities.
What will the opening of this new campus mean for faculty members like you and the students on campus?
This shared campus is, above all, a way to strengthen Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne’s presence on site, making it tangible for students. While they know they are also students at Paris 1, until now they weren’t really aware that, by being at Euromed, they were also at the Sorbonne. This will allow them to feel more like members of our academic community than before and to become more involved in it.
For us faculty members who visit regularly, it’s also a great convenience to have offices where we can work. But I think that for the faculty researchers at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, it’s the research opportunities that will be the most appealing: even if you don’t teach in our programs, you’ll be able to find in this shared campus a base from which to conduct field research in Morocco, stay on campus, have an office there, access the library, and join or launch joint and transdisciplinary projects with our colleagues at UEMF. And I believe this could be of interest to all our departments, not just those directly involved in our degree programs.
“This shared campus is, above all, a way to strengthen Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne’s presence on the ground, making it tangible for students.” (B. Simon)
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