INTERNATIONAL
Erasmus + Charter and International Strategy Statement
The international charter drawn up by the Le Mirail school complex and its Immaconcept campus has been validated by the European Commission with the maximum score of 100/100.
Context
Le Mirail Immaconcept is a young and unique design and applied arts campus in the university landscape.
Created in 2008, the school was under the authority of the Ministry of Education until 2019. Due to the fact that our 3-year courses are only recognised as a High School Diploma +2, it was difficult to male the program visible internationally.
As a result, we are developing a three-step internationalisation strategy.
I - Cross-border dialogues
Above all, we intend to create a network of strong partnerships with higher education institutions in Western Europe. Due to their constant exchanges throughout history, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and the United Kingdom have worked to build a common or dialogical approach to design and the arts, which explains the similarity of their approaches today.
As a result, and seeing as – apart from Switzerland and the United Kingdom – these destinations are now fully participating in the Erasmus + program, it seems necessary to us to create a sustained cooperation with them to enable students to better understand the meaning and relevance of these disciplines in their European context.
A transparent selection of students, who are aware of or curious about this reality, and who have been made aware of it by us, as well as the internationalisation of our alumni policy, will help to perpetuate these links and strengthen this intercultural network over time.
This will also make it possible to offer study trips and internships in nearby destinations to students, some of whom have never left the national territory, as well as joint events facilitated by short distances.
II- An Openness to the city and an openness to the world
Secondly, we are considering a global opening. Due to our small number of students, and in order to avoir any bilateral agreement without any effective life, we are planning to target a small number of partners. Our bilateral links are of course to be built in accordance with the coherence of our respective courses as well as according to the relations between the campuses and local communities.
Indeed, our teachings are permanently focused on the real professional and citizen practices of our territory and its current events. Our campus is in the heart of Bordeaux and the current events in Bordeaux and the Gironde region are the starting point for our pedagogical orientations every year. In addition, almost all of our teachers are also professionals in their field (architects, designers, scenographers, artists, etc.). This serves as a professionalisation purpose and offers our students an awareness of what is actually being done here.We want this internationalisation to give our students an awareness of what is really being done elsewhere.
We will therefore prioritise establishments that are anchored in the current events of their city and territory: cities that are generally of a similar scale and influence to those of the Bordeaux metropolis.
However, we are not looking for “similar” cities or particularly close countries. On the contrary, we believe that the most total otherness must be offered to those who wish to have an immersive and comparative approach.Thus we do not plan on restricting the geographical scope of these partnerships, in order to allow each student to be open to otherness, wherever it may be located.
In a symmetrical way, we hope that the reception of foreign students will be as beneficial to them as to our school. In order to make this reception optimal, all of our couses must be able to be followed by students who have been built around radically different learning methods and cultures. We rely on every teacher and every class to ensure our permanent openness.
In addition, the Head of International Relations, the Campus Director and the Head Teachers will serve as permanent relays in order to ensure the proper adaptation of foreign students into our school as well as our city and our culture: looking for an internship, affordable housing near the campus for financial, logistical and ecological reasons, understanding codes and organisations, a smooth integration into the group-class etc. From an administrative point of view, the semester-based delivery of ECTS credits in accordance with the Bologna agreements is already fully functional. Through these means, we wish to go beyond the principle of “non-discrimination” to true acceptance and beyond the principle of “inclusivity” to true openness. This implies a constant questioning of our compatibility with other and not only of their compabilty with us.
III- Research applied to creation and teaching
Finally, we want this internationalisation to be a reality in our educational and research practices. Many teachers and staff have long-lasting links with certain cities or countries; the Erasmus+ programme will allow us to open these links on an extra-personal scale. Indeed, we conceive research and pedagogy only in a collective and trans-disciplinary way. Our pedagogical programs are proof of this.
Mobilities will therefore serve as an opportunity to compare didactic approaches and particularly the topic of “pedagogical articulation”: the way in which a professor’s teaching links with research, with professionalisation and other teaching given to the same students. Administrative and managerial mobility will also be an opportunity to learn how to structure and coordinate such an interdependent pedagogical approach, which is in constant movement. This implies a constant questioning of governance as well as the technical and pedagogical approach.
Mobilities will be selected and defined based on the individual employee training plan and recognises as part of that plan. Upon their return, employees will have a pivotal role in disseminating the best practices and suggestions for further development of our way of operating. University/Collegial mission return meetings will be held.
Conversely, reception will play the same ole, thanks to exchange strategies of practices, immersion and cross-observation: the study of several positions, sectors, and disciplines to understand the overall operation.
Thus we would like to strengthen the educational and administrative collaboration and mobility based on existing relationships (Portugal, Japan, Spain, canada, etc.) and in a perspective of always collective and applied research: we do not offer doctoral level training and do not have a research laboratory specific to our campus.
Our research activity is therefore always an applied research activity: creation and pedagogy. This criteria will guide this last part of our internationalisation.
Credits and Validation
All our courses are awarded a number of ECTS credits calculated according to the European rules in force to achieve the required level of knowledge and skills. Our courses are all built on the basis of a semester granting 30 ECTS credits. Within each semester, each course has a number of credits, which allows incoming students, depending on the compatibility of schedules and pedagogical consistency, to adjust their study paths.
In accordance with the European rules currently in force, obtaining ECTS credits takes place when validating a subject, semester or a school year.
A subject is validated if the half-yearly average of this subject (including continuous assessment and end-of-year exams) is greater than or equal to 10/20.
A semester is validated if the overall average of the semester (including continuous assessment and end-of-year exams) is greater than or equal to 10/20.
A school year is validated if the average of the two semesters (i.e. the average between the “S1 average” and the “S2 average”) is greater than or equal to 10.
A validated year results in 60 ECTS credits, even f the average of one of the two semesters is less than 10/20. Similarly, a validated semester results in 30 ECTS credits, even if within this semester the average of some subjects is less than 10/20.
