Nice-Première: You have been the president of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (UNSA) since May 2004. Why did you choose this role of high responsibility?
Albert Marouani: At the time I decided to run for the presidency, I was about seven or eight years away from the end of my career. I had previously held positions such as dean or in the administration of international cooperation program laboratories. I thought it was perhaps an opportunity to truly do something for my institution. Especially since at the end of one’s career, you have more freedom. You’re in a phase where you can give everything without asking for anything in return. Personally, I felt that I owed something to the city of Nice, which welcomed me in 1956. I needed to give back to this city what it had given to me.
The last element in making this decision was that universities were in crisis, scientific disciplines were in decline, and in a globalized knowledge economy, the stakes were critical and fundamental. If we didn’t react, we were going to slowly decline, both our universities and our nation.
NP: Did you feel like a missionary?
AM: Perhaps not a missionary. But I felt I could do something. I had ideas and needed to try to implement them. For that, one must hold a position of responsibility. I felt I had to commit. You reach a point where there’s little left to prove. Being a president is a challenge. It’s entirely selfless. It’s not a stepping stone, it’s both disinterested and interesting. Taking up this challenge is an intellectual, civic excitement.
NP: What was your first impression of UNSA upon your arrival? What was your first observation and priority?
AM: The University of Nice is young, only forty years old. It has developed and, like all universities, has gone through periods of crisis. By 2004, we were at a point where we needed to rapidly change vision, behavior, and policy. We were in a renewal process due to numerous retirements, fifty to sixty each year. When you recruit, it’s for thirty years. Hence, ensuring the future was essential.
Simultaneously, it was the period of implementing the LMD system, engaging with the European higher education and research space, in an increasingly competitive world where we had to compete with European and global universities. We had to change our gear; no longer could we linger in the comfort of a public institution. In my candidacy, there was a vision of developing the university, not because my predecessors failed but because each person arrived during a particular historical phase. I also needed to adapt to the new LMD change, competition in the research world, significant challenges in terms of the university’s external attractiveness, and the ability to guide our students towards active life and professional integration. It was a turning point that could not be missed.
NP: The University of Nice Sophia Antipolis is a city within a city. A city is quite complex to manage, with a succession of agreements and disagreements after every decision, influence struggles, external financial and institutional dependencies. Is this parallel accurate?
AM: A city within a city? It’s both true and not true. It’s true if you consider that in Nice we have seven campuses stretching from east to west, from Saint Jean d’Angély to the Plain of Var. We cover the whole city. The number of students in the city is substantial and contributes to its vibrancy. We are increasingly perceived by local authorities as a major factor in local development. The Saint Jean d’Angély University Center has helped develop the area with the tram, revitalized shops, changed the neighborhood’s life, and increased property prices, resulting in urban renovation.
Each student spends on average €1000 a month, multiplied by 26,000. The university invests, also pays employees living in the city, and organizes events. The university presence has a significant impact on the city.
We haven’t managed to make the university’s presence felt in the city. Signage is weak. If you’re on the fast lane, you’ll never see a “University Nice Sophia Antipolis” sign. After a year of discussions with the Nice municipality and Agnès Rampal, in charge of higher education, we finally got signage on each campus… Nothing in town indicates to an inhabitant where the university is.
Lastly, the unity of the UNSA is not recognized. Even students only see the university from one aspect. A literature student doesn’t know the other campuses. Residents assume there are as many universities as campuses. Furthermore, the UNSA is also dispersed within the department with sites in Sophia Antipolis, Cannes, and Menton, and soon in Saint Etienne de Tinée.
NP: Is the visibility of the UNSA one of your battles?
AM: Indeed. The university must be embraced by its users (students, teachers, staff) internally so they feel part of a unique whole, as well as by the city and department’s citizens. It is very unknown to the public and public stakeholders.
Take examples from elsewhere. When a student graduates, they say they graduated from Harvard or Berkeley, Cambridge or Oxford. Here, we say “I graduated from the Nice Business Administration Institute, the Nice IUT, the Nice Law Faculty.” This makes the university opaque, and in addition, we use incomprehensible acronyms: UFR, IAE. Saying “University of Nice Sophia Antipolis” would lend more weight to the institution and everyone. United, people appear much stronger. It’s a daily battle to bring this visibility at the local, national, and international levels. In two years, we managed to enter the Shanghai ranking. We are among the 21 French universities listed.
NP: Is that a source of pride?
AM: Yes. We should aim for a better ranking. We are among the top 500 worldwide. We are there despite the disadvantages that French universities face, which others do not. We have fewer resources, a lower cost per student, and a fragmented academic landscape with some faculties having special statuses and separate grandes écoles, unlike elsewhere in the world. The CNRS, INSERM… are outside the university. Harvard Business School is Harvard’s business school, as is Harvard Medical School. With the French system, CNRS researcher publications are indexed as “CNRS” and will never appear in the Shanghai ranking, even if the researcher is from the University of Nice and the research is conducted on our premises. The ranking is based on the university’s publication count. If a Literature student writes an article signing Fac de Lettres, this writing cannot be cataloged in the ranking. All this to say, the absence of unity doesn’t provide weight to French universities in the European and international landscape. If despite this, we appear in this ranking, it means we are not so bad.
NP: What are the main challenges? Dominique de Villepin announced the immediate release of 75 million euros on Thursday to “complete university building and student housing projects.” Will you receive part of these 75 million and what will be your priority?
AM: I learned like you from the radio about this funding release. Of course, we will request a share of this budget, notably since, after forty years, a young university like ours faces genuine building maintenance problems. In Parc Valrose, for instance, you’ll see many plaques marked with a cross, meaning they’re at risk of falling. Dominique de Villepin announced 75 million; we need 80 million to renovate the entire real estate inventory. The 75 million announced by the Prime Minister is for all universities, some in deplorable conditions. I exaggerated a bit with 80 million. We need at least 40 million to restore laboratories, buildings, redo a suitable piping, heating, and electrical system, and meet hygiene and safety standards. The state of the Letters Faculty’s pool is deplorable. We’ve been patching it for years to keep it open. The roof and pool leak, with ongoing hygiene issues in the changing rooms requiring constant attention. We’d need 5 million for this pool and we don’t have it. Renovating the Letters Library would require 4 or 5 million euros.
NP: Is it up to the university to incur these expenses?
AM: We get some aid. We have a property budget, but it barely covers minimal maintenance. Extensive maintenance involves refurbishing a classroom, for example. So we will request funds. It will require some lobbying.
NP: Isn’t it the State’s responsibility?
AM: The buildings belong to the State. Logically it should be. A university’s budget is 60% State, 15 to 20% tuition fees, and the rest from contracts and a little from local authorities. The State, evidently, claims it’s in debt with no funds to allocate. Post-elections, a solution needs to be found.
NP: Why not before?
AM: Who would commit seven months before elections? It’s a sensitive issue. Diversifying the university’s financial resources grants it more autonomy, which is very sensitive… If we raised tuition fees to 1000€ (currently 200), as in Italy, I could achieve much. But students don’t want that. Thus, it should be drawn from taxation. An authority, given what a university brings to a city and department, could provide 1000 euros per student. That would change the game. It takes long-term effort to convince local authorities that they need to change their perspective regarding the university. They should no longer see higher education and research as a subsidy but as an investment from which they benefit. For now, it’s not in their legal purview.
