International opportunities

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The University is committed to developing a range of courses suitable for international students (double degrees) and to promote its research at the global level. These twin goals are supported by a University-wide policy involving schemes to consolidate the University's position globally through its participation in consortia in the framework of European programs, its active presence in university cooperation associations such as AUF, EUA, etc., and by its increasing participation in international research and cooperation projects.
The University of Clermont Auvergne has therefore been pursuing the two major policy goals set by Europe for 2014-2020 through the Erasmus + and Horizon 2020 programs since its creation. It heads up the Erasmus Intern Consortium at the Clermont site. As proof of its reputation, UCA has been included since 2014 in the international Shanghai ranking for its results and, since 2015, in the Times Higher Education ranking as 193rd university worldwide for its international development.

Goal 1: Internationalisation of UCA courses

Only the combination of English with classes in French as a Foreign Language will make our degrees potentially eligible for European labels and enable us to develop double degrees and joint degrees. The development of courses based on multilingualism is therefore a priority, for both our French and international students. A number of actions have been launched to meet this challenge:
  • creation of a "Free" course unit in English, entitled "Studying the Auvergne as a Region";
  • help in the design of short courses (Summer schools);
  • development of a course for teaching staff wishing to teach in English: Teaching In English (TIE);
  • consolidation of English training for students by developing the use of English as a learning tool alongside French: Student Learning in English (SLIE);
  • creation of specific French as a Foreign Language courses, like the "Scientific French" module;
  • promotion of disciplinary courses taught in English (and their support, where possible, by the "Internationalisation of courses" call for projects)
The University also seeks to support the development of double degrees via its new Projects and Partnerships division (see organisational chart):
  • support in implementing credit equivalence procedures;
  • monitoring and awareness-raising among teaching and research staff with regard to opportunities offered in the framework of calls for projects.

Goal 2: Internationalisation of research

These measures are designed to complement the numerous internationalisation measures taken by the laboratories themselves for their own research projects, as well as the policy of support implemented by the Research Division of UCA.
The University of Clermont Auvergne is committed to a proactive policy to internationalise research, which is also supported by the Department of International Relations (DRI). In concrete terms, this policy involves:
  • encouraging international mobility among young researchers via a call for projects proposed jointly by the DRP and the DRI (centralised by the DRI);
  • taking part in new schemes beneficial for the University alongside funding bodies for international research (MAEE, CNRS, European Union, ANR, AUF, etc.);
  • developing joint thesis supervision;
  • promoting the presence of Guest Professors at UCA and implementing a flexible, incentivising scheme, both for departments and laboratories;
  • developing shared international "teaching/research" goals (language modules in the Doctoral Schools, etc., help with translation into English, help with proofreading, English training for teaching and research staff);
  • supporting HRS4R certification of the Europe Cell (best recruitment of international researchers) thanks to the hiring of a Project Manager;
  • providing a better welcome for foreign teaching and research staff by reinforcing the Euraxess welcome centre strategies, which will be set up in the DRI in 2018.