French university students gather for Ukrainian president's speech

6 July 2023

Institute

At the initiative of the Ukrainian Embassy in France, President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a speech to students at French universities, followed by a discussion with the students gathered in Sciences Po's Amphithéâtre Boutmy.
Les étudiants représentants des universités partenaires de l'événement, aux côtés d'Anne-Sophie Barthez, directrice générale de l'enseignement supérieur, et de Mathias Vicherat, directeur de l'Institut d'études politiques de Paris © Sciences Po
Les étudiants représentants des universités partenaires de l'événement, aux côtés d'Anne-Sophie Barthez, directrice générale de l'enseignement supérieur, et de Mathias Vicherat, directeur de l'Institut d'études politiques de Paris © Sciences Po‎

- Sciences Po press release of May 11, 2022 -

The Ukrainian president's first speech to students since the start of the war in his country generated over 30,000 live views on YouTube. It was followed by several thousand students, who were able to watch the exchange in their lecture halls and broadcast live for an hour on France's main 24-hour news channels.

At Sciences Po, in an exceptional and particularly symbolic format, nearly 900 students gathered in 3 amphitheaters opened for the occasion, including delegations of students from the event's partner universities, Inalco, Institut National du Service Public, Ecole Polytechnique and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, as well as Université Paris Panthéon-Assas, Sorbonne-Université, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Lille, Université de Lyon and Université de Haute-Alsace, and Ecole du Louvre.

The Ukrainian president @ZelenskyyUa chose France and its universities to speak to students for the first time.
At Sciences Po, today, hundreds came to listen to him. Follow #60minZelensky live ➡️ https://t.co/ZIqphkiS3o pic.twitter.com/rtBoQ2I5Ig

- Sciences Po (@sciencespo) May 11, 2022

Relayed by the Conférence de Grandes Écoles, France Universités, the Conférence des directeurs des écoles françaises de management and the Conférence des directeurs des écoles françaises d'ingénieurs, many higher education establishments across France had also opened amphitheaters to allow their students to gather to listen to Volodymyr Zelensky's speech : Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, Université de Haute-Alsace, La Rochelle Université, COMUE Université de Lyon, Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne and IUT de Béziers.

"Students are the future, they are the ones who decide the future of France, Ukraine and the world. This meeting must be a discussion, I want to hear what you have to say!", Volodymyr Zelensky told students from French universities.

The Ukrainian president's speech and the ensuing exchanges focused on the dramatic consequences of the war, the commitment of young people, the European Union and NATO.

All the school presidents and directors present would like to thank the Ukrainian President and the Ukrainian Ambassador to France for this historic moment shared with the students of France.

Relive here this exceptional event.

Among the 20 Inalco students present at Sciences Po, Zoriana Haniak, a student on a bilingual Ukrainian-Polish degree course and president of the Association des Etudiants Ukrainiens en France, had the opportunity to chat for a few moments with president Volodymyr Zelensky.

The auditorium of the Pôle des langues et civilisations was open to allow other students to follow this conference broadcast live and simultaneously translated into French by Iryna Dmytrychyn, lecturer in Ukrainian language and civilization at Inalco.

#60minZelensky Zoriana Haniak, a student in the Ukrainian-Polish bachelor's degree program at Inalco, poses her question to the Ukrainian president @ZelenskyyUa: "How can we most effectively help Ukraine as students of Ukrainian in France". pic.twitter.com/nVkRLM5zfG

- Inalco (@Inalco) May 11, 2022R

USEFUL LINKS
Watch the conference on YouTube