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Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: Sep 30, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Internalisation is at the heart of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques d’Aix-en-Provence’s policy. (IEP, Sciences Po Aix). Spending a year abroad, either studying in one of our partner universities or doing an international internship (in public organisations or in the private sector), has been compulsory for all third-year students since 2004. Moreover, a significant number of our fifth-year students also choose to complete their Masters degree abroad. By regularly renewing existing partnerships and negotiating new ones, we aim to strengthen our ties with our long-standing partners as well as broaden the offer of destinations available to our students both in Europe, through Easmus agreements, and elsewhere in the world, through bitateral agreements, thus allowing us to send between 150 and 200 students abroad every year. Students choosing to engage in an academic exchange select, in our partners’ course catalogues, courses available in their varied fields of studies (Political Science, Economics, Sociology, History,Law…) since Sciences Po offers pluridisciplinary teaching. Benefits of such an international experience are manifold ; it allows our students to broaden their view of the world, to approach new cultures and different educational systems, to improve thier language skills and to add to their academic pursuit a valuable life experience. Whichever profesional careers they will choose to pursue in the future, be it in the private or public sector, their experience abroad will prove to be an added value often allowing them to aspire to higher positions. In parallel, our bilateral agreements generate an important flow of incoming students who come to our Institute for either a semester or a whole academic year thus creating a rich melting pot which encourages multi-cultural interactions between the French students and their Intenational peers. Moreover, for the last four years, the Institute has been offering the possibility of a double-degree course in cooperation with the University of Freiburg, Germany. Between 15 and 20 students of both nationalities have embarked on this academic adventure, jointly studying alternatively a year in Aix and a year in Feiburg in view of obtaining a joint degree. Through this experience students are acquiring immensely valuable knowledge of both cultures and languages which will no doubt open doors for them to work in either country in the future. Other similar projects will be implemented in the near future, as we are seeking cooperation with arabic- speaking and spanish-speaking universities. Finally, the Institute of Political Science also encourages academics and administrative staff to take advantage of mobility opportunities to teach abroad or to attend conferences. The implementation of our international policy, has impacted many sectors of the academic life and has led to the modernisation of our Institute ; collaboration with international partners has helped us to adapt the contents of our curriculum, to broaden the offer of courses taught in foreign languages, as well as to pursue technological innovation.

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