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Training for transitions

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Eric Macé, Vice-President for societal and environmental transitions, and Pascal Lecroart, Vice-President for education and university life, share their common strategy for the successful integration of transitions into the University of Bordeaux's educational offer.

Integrating transitions into the heart of the University of Bordeax's training offer is a shared desire. What is the context of this strategy?

"Training students in environmental and societal transitions is a central issue for the University of Bordeaux. This genuine commitment has been included for several years in our strategic plan, our roadmap for transitions and also in our training offer framework. More recently, through the training programme roadmaps, teachers have been able to share their intention to include societal issues in each university course and have put forward a proposal for mid-term deployment. 

When the new political team took office, we engaged in the concrete implementation of these initial commitments by relying on reports produced at the local, national and even international levels.

In October, Sylvie Retailleau, Minister for Higher Education and Research, specified the operational aspects of this nation-wide project during a seminar organised in our offices. One of the key announcements aims to "implement, in all our undergraduate courses and by 2025 at the latest, a global, transversal and multidisciplinary competence standard on the subject for all students".

For the University of Bordeaux, this announcement is in line with our ongoing commitments and provides a framework for a dynamic that has already been launched."

 

 

All students at the university are trained in concepts and skills related to environmental and societal transitions: from initiation to certification.

21st commitment of the University of Bordeaux's roadmap for transitions produced in February 2021

What first actions have been taken by the University of Bordeaux?

"In January 2022, Vincent Robin and Denis Dessagne, Institute of Education (INSPE) professors, were granted leave of absence in order to develop pedagogical projects dedicated to integrating transitions into the training offer. They produced an inventory of the situation and submitted a report that identified the levers on which the university can act, our strengths, our weaknesses, and the main obstacles to the integration of these issues into our curriculums.

These initial findings served as the basis for setting up a first cross-disciplinary working group made up of 35 teachers and administrative staff from all backgrounds and training components. Led by Anne Coubray, in charge of research, innovation and training transitions within the new Institute for Transitions, the working group drew up a set of specifications. This collective production provided concrete indications for the different approaches to enact in order to achieve this transformation and on the positioning of these topics in our educational offer.

At the national level, and to enable institutions to implement the directives announced in October, the Ministry is currently organising workshops on three specific themes: "expectations and competences", "the implementation of a national resource platform" and "the recognition of student commitment and participation". A summary of these workshops is expected shortly and should enable the drafting of a national action plan.

What are the next steps for this project?

"We will use the results produced by the working group, the directives from the Ministry and the summary of the national workshops to implement an action plan from the start of the 2024 academic year.

Although not everything has yet been decided, we have already identified three main areas to work on:

  • respond to the Ministry's request by proposing transversal and multidisciplinary training material for all undergraduate students;
  • encourage the teaching community to rethink the content of disciplinary training;
  • identify new professions and skills linked to the changes in our society.

At the same time, the issue of training teachers for transitions and in the challenges they respresent is an essential key to the success of our objectives.

We hope that any request from a teacher who wishes to transform his or her practices may be taken into account and supported. To this end, the recruitment of an educational engineer dedicated to this theme is underway."

Institute for Transitions

Launched on January 1st 2023, the University of Bordeaux’s Institute for Transitions strives to drive, accelerate, animate and coordinate all of the institution's actions in favour of societal and environmental transitions, in its various areas of activity: training, research, innovation and campus life, in conjunction with its partners and its territory.

In view of the transversal nature of transitions, the Institute relies on an extensive team within the university's various administrative services, and works in close collaboration with its training components and research departments. In addition to the operational contacts, the Institute also counts on an active network of student and staff ambassadors.

Focusing education and research on transitions

Placing transitions at the core of its major education and research missions is one of the University of Bordeaux's primary objectives. In doing so, it strives to be proactive in meeting the challenges facing our societies through training in new skills, making scientific expertise available for public debate and policies, and contributing to societal innovation.

 

 

Find out more

Part two of this interview will be broadcast in March 2023. On the agenda: focus on the main areas to be worked on, teacher training, student involvement and conditions for implementing the integration of transitions into the training offer.