Planning for the future: French universities in 2012

The French government has implemented changes in the university system to bring it up to the highest international level. This has involved creating national agencies and regional and discipline-based research bodies and foundations, forging closer links between universities and research institutions, reforming the management structure of universities by granting them more autonomy, a new budgeting system that has abolished ring-fenced funds for SCDs, and renovation projects at ten universities, prior to redrawing the map of university distribution. SCDs have a role to play in this process by facilitating their own integration into national and European networks, strengthening their management structures, drawing on a process of internal negotiation to define their new role, and evaluating their own performance.
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