Elected brilliantly with 22 votes against 16 for the outgoing candidate, the new Director of the IUT at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, Henri Alexis, doesn’t really need to convince his interlocutors about his passion for teaching: the twenty years spent in the service of transmitting university knowledge easily attest to that. A passion for “working together” and “on a daily basis” that this lecturer in Information and Communication Sciences, Doctor of Science in Management, has certainly succeeded in sharing, as evidenced by his re-election for a second term at the end of the previous year as Head of the “Commercial Techniques” Department at the Nice IUT. Not to mention the years of presence and involvement in the various Councils of the Institute and the administration of the University.
For the 2,500 students spread over the four campuses (Nice, Cannes, Sophia-Antipolis, and Menton), Henri Alexis does not hide his great ambitions: “to place the company at the heart of the IUT more than ever and to strengthen its international presence”. He willingly explains: while preserving the “democratic governance” of the IUT’s functioning—a pressing request from his university and adjunct colleagues at a time when the University is undergoing profound changes—Henri Alexis wishes to strengthen the participation of businesses not only by welcoming more professionals into the teachings but also by proposing the creation of new work-study programs. Starting in the fall of 2008, a “Real Estate” Professional Bachelor’s Degree will be added to the “Banking & Insurance” Professional Bachelor’s Degree, a course particularly favored by the banking profession which increasingly recruits “salespeople” but is also very popular with students since it results, more than 90% of the time, in a job contract in an agency. According to the new IUT Director, strengthening this partnership with the business world and professional organizations must also result in increased international exchanges: “I am convinced of the richness, for a student, of completing an intercultural university course,” he explains. “And I will personally contribute to building international projects through the deployment of internships abroad and partnerships with universities and schools in other countries.”
Business and International, two axes considered “absolute priorities” which nonetheless do not exempt Henri Alexis from considering the conditions of those for whom these teachings are ultimately intended: the students. As if never to forget the period of his life when he himself was a student, Henri Alexis wishes to facilitate student life and enhance their professional and personal support. And as the best argument, he recalls that the Ministry of Higher Education has taken from the IUTs to incorporate into more traditional General Degree programs the “tutored projects” and the “Personalized Professional Project,” two effective means of enlightening the student about their orientation and self-awareness while allowing them to take their first steps into the working world. This passion for the University, for his colleagues, and for the students, “in fact,” he smiles, “is a recurring passion for others!”
And to ensure that his new functions do not consume him to the point of losing sight of his promises, he has decided to display on one of the walls of his new office the entirety of the pages of his manifesto!
