„We need to work together to support our students“
Interview mit Antoine Mercie von der französischen Universität Chimie ParisTech PSL
FAU is a proud member of the “European Engineering Learning Innovation and Science Alliance” (EELISA). EELISA is FAU’s European University – an association of ten European universities from Hungary, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Romania, France, and FAU in Germany. Together those ten universities shape innovation and the future of society, mastering global challenges with intelligent and sustainable solutions by European cooperation. In the upcoming weeks we will introduce all members of EELISA.
Today we talk to Antoine Mercier, deputy director for international relations at Chimie ParisTech PSL.
Your university is a member of EELISA. Can you briefly introduce your university to us?
Antoine Mercier: I am involved since the very beginning of EELISA when the engineering schools of PSL considered that there was a fantastic opportunity to promote a future European engineer. Then, set by set, we build EELISA as an Alliance to promote student engagement, SDGs so that all Students can benefit from EELISA. Since them I am a member of the Executive Board of the Alliance where I have been Chair for one year.
Via EELISA I was able to know better existing partners in eastern Europe and new one such as FAU!
What is your personal connection to EELISA?
I am involved since the very beginning of EELISA when the engineering schools of PSL considered that there was a fantastic opportunity to promote a future European engineer. Then, set by set, we build EELISA as an Alliance to promote student engagement, SDGs so that all Students can benefit from EELISA. Since them I am a member of the Executive Board of the Alliance where I have been Chair for one year.
Via EELISA I was able to know better existing partners in eastern Europe and new one such as FAU!
What is your personal connection to FAU?
Before EELISA, I was personally not aware of FAU even if there were research collaborations between both institution. Even if I work in the International Office of one PSL school which is rather small (120 researchers) it is not easy to really know on-going academic collaborations. That is why I am very pleased to regularly learn that researchers or academics from PSL are actually collaborating with FAU. We were able to make those contacts more visible and now we also connect those research links with our training. Since the start of EELISA one or two students have been coming to FAU per year. I hope this will increase in the future.
PSL and FAU have a lot in common and EELISA is the perfect framework to expand/increase our collaboration.
“Together is better than alone” – Why should in your opinion universities work together in an alliance like EELISA?
The playground of students in Europe is still limited compared to US or Chinese students. It is still difficult for a graduate student to think a european career due to the differences between countries. So, we really need to work together to support our students and make them European citizens. To me, this change cannot be implemented via a top-down approach and can only be achieved via collaboration within universities so that (legal) barriers can be removed.
What does EELISA mean for your University? And how does EELISA enrich your university’s community?
EELISA is a European test bed for academic and research initiative. At PSL we are creating new curricula in Sustainable development, we support collaborations between schools to create original training at Master level, interdisciplinary is our motto and we always back our training with excellent research.
We can find all those aspects in EELISA and collaborating with other members will help us achieve our mission.
What would you wish for the future development of EELISA?
I wish the people (academics, researchers, staff, students) get closer and closer and closer by offering them more opportunities to develop their careers.
