Why do I wish to become director of Sciences Po

The first reason for my candidacy for the directorship of Sciences Po is both self-evident and yet essential: I have deep and unshakeable ties with this institution. Alumni, permanent teacher, researcher, member of the university’s administrative staff, I owe my whole professional career to Sciences Po. Each of these steps allowed me to measure how the most rigorous and exacting intellectual tradition can live in harmony with renewed, forward looking and world reaching vision, openness and ambition. I love Sciences Po as a vibrant and lively organisation, not as some sacred cow of the French higher education system. I have an in-depth knowledge of the university’s inner workings, subtle balance, and of the men and women who work there on a daily basis. This is the experience I wish to bring to Sciences Po, at one of the most capital moments in its history.

My candidacy is based on one simple idea: to give more weight to those who work each day to uphold and maintain Sciences Po’s service of the general interest. For too long, have they been unable to express themselves. The impressive results reached for the last ten years, in teaching, in research; in international development and reputation are the collective work of the employees, teachers, students, researchers and alumni. They cannot be collectively held responsible for the errors made in Sciences Po’s management and governance. This is something I intend to assert as clearly as possible.

Last but not least, I am convinced the choice of Sciences Po’s future director must be underpinned by a dynamic and courageous vision. To prepare the younger generations to the world in which they will be working, I intend to promote an intellectual and educational project, both demanding and adapted to the contemporary worlds realities. I have the will, not only to bring to an end the past management mistakes, but also and especially to guarantee an exemplary, transparent and collegial management and governance of Sciences Po on the long-term.

This project has been nourished by numerous exchanges with students, teachers, researchers, administrative staff, and alumni. The objective it seeks to accomplish is to return Sciences Po to those who embody it on a daily basis. Sciences Po must become, more than ever, an open school (“école ouverte”), a testing ground for pedagogical innovations and research, as well as a player in the transformation of the world of education. In my eyes, Sciences Po must continue its work to diversify, democratise and transform higher education, research, and the society beyond, as foreseen by its visionary founder: Emile Boutmy.

Sciences Po must of course preserve, and consolidate, its present strength and originality: the autonomy, the educational model, and the ability to create. It must at the same time resist to the temptations of isolationism. Thus, I am convinced of the necessity to adapt the statutes, the governance and the workings of Sciences Po, in order for the students, the teachers, the researchers, the employees, and the alumni, to become fully fledged actors of the university’s policy and choices. Only with those energies will Sciences Po be able to accomplish its destiny as an international, world-level institution in higher education and research.

This is my ambition, this is the ambition of all those who embody and love Sciences Po.

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