The projects for the University of Nice in 2010-2011 are plentiful, even though the challenges are certainly present. According to its president Albert Marouani, the Azurian University is recognized for “excellent performances that are acknowledged internationally. But we must be philosophical and embrace the Latin maxim ‘nemo propheta est in patria!’ [no one is a prophet in their own land -editor’s note].”
With his style free of any solemnity, the president of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Albert Marouani, opened with these words the press luncheon to which he invited a few representatives of the Nice press to update them on the perspectives of “his” Alma Mater.
Albert Marouani: “Now I am somewhat the boss”
Indeed, this place of education somewhat belongs to him. “Now I am somewhat ‘the’ boss because with the reform law and budgetary autonomy, I have more freedom than before. You know the State gives you a budget and it is your responsibility to manage it properly with a Board of Directors to whom you must report your results.
Our University has a strong growth potential; we could reach 50,000 students (compared to 26,000 currently) like Grenoble, a university we can compare ourselves to by regional size and sphere of influence. Naturally, the logistics would need to follow. Education is not everything. We need spaces for our buildings and the logistics that come with them. The University already occupies around 400,000 square meters of area. After the arrangement of the Saint-Jean d’Angely pole, which is almost completed, we are interested in the development of the National Interest Operation in the Plain of the Var where we hope to have the opportunity to establish ourselves. We are somewhat a city within the city.”
Human Resources
In addition to the significant mobile and immobile resources, the University president also recalls the figures regarding the University’s human resources: “Do not forget that UNSA employs exactly 1,350 people. There are 1,347 teacher-researchers and about 850 staff members for a budget of 240 million euros. The students number over 26,000, of whom 18% are of foreign nationality. This last point is very important for us because our internationalization is a considerable ‘plus.’ We manage the Euro-Mediterranean Pôle de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur (PRES) with the Italian universities of Genoa and Turin and those of Corsica, Var, and Paris 6.
We have offshoring projects to create international degrees in partnership, as is already done in Vietnam. We are looking with great interest at opportunities in the United States and China. But development requires additional financial resources.”
Unice and Partnership Foundations
In this search for financing, the UNSA president does not forget to remind us that the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis has founded “two new tools, which are the Unice Foundation and the Partnership Foundations. The first is intended for managing fundraising with the possibility for subscribers (companies and individuals) to benefit from tax provisions for donations to a University Foundation. We aim to ultimately generate revenue of several million euros following the model of Anglo-Saxon and American universities [Harvard University has a $29 billion endowment]. As for the other, its mission is to manage partnership contracts and the financing modalities of research with companies in a way that preserves its scientific nature. We also expected more difficulties here, but field experience has outdone the ideological approaches of its critics.”
The University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis is:
Three Essential Missions:
– Initial and lifelong education
– Research and valorization
– Professional integration
In Numbers:
– 17 campuses (11 main ones) in the PACA Region
– 209 courses (bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate)
– 2nd multidisciplinary university in France with a health sector in student numbers.
– Among the top 10 research-intensive French universities
– One of the 20 French universities ranked internationally (Shanghai ranking).
Presidency of the Euro-Mediterranean PRES with 5 founding partner universities:
– University of Corsica
– University of Genoa
– University Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris 6)
– University Sud-Toulon Var
– University of Turin
And also:
– 36 facilities, 300,000 cubic meters of premises
– 7 training units, 3 institutes, 2 schools
– 55 laboratories, 30 classified ‘A’ and 5 classified ‘A+’
– 6 doctoral schools
– 3 federative institutes, 1 House of Human Sciences, 1 low-noise underground laboratory
– 1376 research potential (953 UNSA EC + 423 partner organization researchers)
– 100 to 200 publications per year
– 8 documentary spaces
– 71 student associations
– 60 sports activities
…and in 2009, 13 patents filed, 9 software programs, 4 start-ups created.
