Sciences Po celebrates Franco-German relations in an event attended by the Ministers for Europe for both countries

25/01/2023 | 12:00 Press Releases  

Paris, January 25th 2023 - As part of a series of events to mark the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, Sciences Po organised a special lecture in partnership with the Körber-Stiftung Foundation. The conference was attended by Laurence Boone, France’s Secretary of State for Europe, and Anna Lührmann, Germany’s Deputy Minister for European Affairs and the Climate. Speakers discussed the future of relations between Paris and Berlin. 

 

Sciences Po: a committed stakeholder in the Franco-German Friendship

Outside of this conference, as a world-class university with an international outlook, Sciences Po is firmly committed to championing Franco-German cooperation. It runs a wide range of initiatives to advance this goal: academic exchanges, dual degree programmes, research collaborations etc.

Germans are the second most represented nationality among Sciences Po's international students, with 708 German students enrolled in 2022-2023. Meanwhile, 57 students from Sciences Po are currently enrolled at an institution in Germany for their third year abroad or for the off-campus semester of their Master's program, together with 173 students enrolled in a dual degree programme between Sciences Po and a German partner institution.

Undergraduates enrolled at the Sciences Po Nancy Campus study political, economic and social issues relating to the European Union, with a particular focus on Franco-German relations. The campus’s French-language curriculum, which includes some courses taught in English and German, gives students an opportunity to delve into major European issues, such as the formation of a European political area or of an integrated economic market with the Euro as a single currency. It also deepens their knowledge of the French and German-speaking world specifically, for example, through seminars organised by the Alfred Grosser Chair.

As part of celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, 50 students of the Nancy Campus participated in Franco-German Partnership Day, an event hosted by the World Peace Centre (Centre mondial de la paix) in Verdun on 20 January 2023. Students led and contributed to round table discussions with ministers and leaders from both countries, including Bruno Le Maire, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Martin Schulz, Jean Rottner, Dr Joachim Nagel (the President of the Deutsche Bundesbank) and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (Germany’s former Federal Minister of Defence). The student council is also organising another event for 28 January, to be attended by diplomats, lecturers and journalists.

Sciences Po’s relationship with Germany is also grounded in an extensive network of institutional partners:

  • Sciences Po has established 27 partnerships with German institutions and signed three dual degree agreements with Freie Universität Berlin (at both Bachelor’s and Master’s level) and the Hertie School of Governance.
  • The Franco-German University, a network of all the universities offering dual degree programmes between French and German institutions, provides a scholarship for every student enrolled in a dual degree between Sciences and Freie Universität Berlin, as well as funding to subsidise the administrative costs of the dual degrees.
  • The Franco-German Exchange Programme for Parliamentary Assistant Interns (PEAPS): each year, five German candidates are selected to spend a semester studying at Sciences Po prior to completing an internship at the Assemblée Nationale.
  • CIVICA - The European University of Social Sciences, a network of which Sciences Po is a founding member, also includes the Hertie School of Governance, Sciences Po’s close partner. Five German partner universities also participate in the U7+ Alliance, of which Sciences Po is a member.
  • Every year, the German Academic Exchange Office (DAAD) awards a scholarship for academic excellence to ten German students enrolled in a full degree programme at Sciences Po. It also funds a research chair in Nancy.
  • All Sciences Po alumni with ties to Germany are brought together in the Franco-German Circle, a group within the university’s Alumni Association. Alumni of the dual degree with Freie Universität have the additional option of joining the Gerhard Kiersch Verein Association.

Sciences Po’s cooperation with German partners also extends to collaboration in research projects, underscoring the university’s ambition to be a world-leading social science research university:

  • Each year, the Alfred Grosser Chair gives two German visiting professors the opportunity to spend time researching in Paris or Nancy, with the financial support of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
  • HeiParisMax is a collaborative research and exchange programme for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers working on issues of public comparative law and international law at Sciences Po and the Max Planck Institut.
  • MaxPo is an institutional partnership with the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) in Cologne, whose aim is to analyse social change.
  • Finally, Sciences Po is a member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Studies and Research on Germany (CIERA).

 

About Sciences Po

Founded around values of openness and excellence, Sciences Po is a selective research university of international standing whose unique model associates a specialization in social sciences and humanities and a multidisciplinarity and a professional anchoring to train actors that can understand and transform society. 

PR contacts :

Romain Becker & Camille Kress : media@sciencespo.fr / +33 1 45 49 50 79

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