Campus study
The main advantage of courses offered at the Campus is the presence of a team including two universities and a private higher education institute that cover a wide range of disciplines and, eventually, an unparalleled concentration of ten engineering or management schools.
There are currently six schools on the Saclay Plateau campus, which already has nearly 17,000 students and more than 4,000 doctoral students. Over the next six years, seven additional schools will join the Plateau.
At the end of the process, the Campus will have a total of 13 institutes representing nearly 30,000 students (to which we must add the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin and its 14,000 students). Twelve of these institutes are affiliated with two PRES [Clusters for Research and Higher Education] (PRES ParisTech and Paris-Sud University).
The institutes involved are working together to establish specific education courses, such as the nuclear and nano science courses at the National Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (INSTN).
Situating the Campus on the global market
Through this integration, the institutes involved want to situate the Saclay Plateau Campus in the global market by developing the following actions initiated by the PRES [Clusters for Research and Higher Education]:
● attract students and lecturers of the highest calibre, both nationally and internationally. This requires the establishments on campus to be part of various European networks such as the IDEA League, Unitech, Times, and ATHENS, which will notably assist with student exchanges;
● seek partnerships with businesses in order to capitalise on the recognition by companies, who must be full and committed partners, and to better align education and industry needs;
streamline education to achieve a critical body to initiate original course units and to rely on research institutes to offer students new opportunities. This includes the master’s degree in "nuclear energy" supported by five institutes with the cooperation of three industrial companies, and the establishment of European education courses, such as the Master’s of Chemistry, SERP CHEM, involving four institutes including the Paris-Sud University, as well as the Master’s in Generating Eco Innovation, involving the PRES UniverSud.
Facilitating cross-fertilisation
This concentration of institutes and students makes new experiences possible on a large scale: mix populations and establish links through education, research projects, and leisure activities. The "cross-fertilisation" among student courses, across disciplines, between teaching and research will be a major challenge for higher education in the coming years. Indeed, one of the goals set by PRES [Cluster for Research and Higher Education] ParisTech is to double the number of engineering students who will pursue a doctorate.
