His Excellency Vincent Guérend, French Ambassador to Ireland, and delegates from the Embassy of France in Ireland, paid a special visit to South East Technological University (SETU) recently to meet with SETU President, Prof. Veronica Campbell and her team.
“I was delighted to welcome His Excellency Vincent Guérend to SETU. It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase and discuss our collaborative education and research partnerships with France, which continue to go from strength-to-strength,” said Professor Campbell.
These collaborations include Erasmus Plus partnerships with over 40 universities across France that have seen over 50% of all SETUs incoming Erasmus students originating from French universities.
The prominence of French universities in SETU’s research and innovation endeavours is also clear. For example, of the 81 countries that SETU academics have recently co-authored research publications with, France ranks third highest (after the UK and the US) involving almost 60 universities and organisations in France.
EU-CONEXUS
A particular focus was placed during the visit on SETU’s membership of EU-CONEXUS for SMART Urban Coastal Sustainability, which is part of European Universities – an EU Higher Education initiative.
Such transnational alliances are to the fore of European Union policy and strategy for promoting European values and identity, and for enhancing the quality and competitiveness of European higher education. The SETU EU-CONEXUS team, led by Professor Peter Mc Loughlin delivered an engaging presentation on the project highlighting the leading role they were playing in the thematic areas of joint masters programme development and career development.
The SETU School of Business, represented by Declan Cahill, highlighted the Postgraduate Double Degree with Brest Business School in France, and the research, innovation, and exchanges between SETU and French universities.
Colleagues from the SETU School of Humanities, Dr Suzanne Denieffe, Dr Chris Mulhall, and Dr Don O’Neill engaged in discussions regarding the teaching of languages such as the Franco-Irish Tandem Language Learning Project, FICAHT (Franco-Irish Culinary Arts, Hospitality and Tourism Network); Dairy Chef Competition, and the Goût de France event.
The Ambassador was particularly interested in the academic scholarship of Dr Paul Ryan and emphasised the importance of his work on Paul Valéry.
There was also a discussion on the 2023 Normandy Ireland Declaration of Intent designed to deepen the collaboration of Irish and Normandy Higher Education Institutions.
This initiative aims to explore and foster mutually beneficial partnerships and priority-focused activities to support regional economic development through mobility of students and staff in the areas of climate, energy, sustainability, blue economy transitions, and more.
Pilot projects
SETU presented on the two pilot projects currently underway under the Declaration of Intent. These include the collaborative work with the University of Caen on entrepreneurship education and regional socio-economic ecosystem development led by Peadar Casey, Enterprise Development Manager, and research co-operation with the ESIGELEC School of Engineering, Research Institute IRSEEM, led by Dr Dean Callaghan EngCORE Director at SETU.
The Ambassador concluded his visit to the SETU campus by engaging with French students at SETU.