Inalco joins Sorbonne Alliance

Inalco's entry into Sorbonne Alliance means a concomitant departure from Alliance Sorbonne Paris-Cité (ASPC), in a context where the latter has undergone major changes following the end of the idex and the merger of Paris-V and Paris-VII into Université Paris Cité. On the other hand, Inalco maintains very good relations with Université Paris Cité and Sciences Po, and bilateral framework agreements with Paris Cité are in the process of being signed.

Launched in 2018 and taking shape in 2021, Sorbonne Alliance is a unique association designed to meet the challenge facing French universities in the humanities and social sciences. Composed since its creation of Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and ESCP Business School, Sorbonne Alliance recently welcomed Inalco.

The founding members have unanimously agreed to accept Inalco's application to join Sorbonne Alliance. This decision will take effect at the end of the review process by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

Now numbering four, the school presidents and their teams met for a first joint work meeting on Monday June 10 to develop common reflections and launch new projects for Sorbonne Alliance.

This integration is part of a strategy to structure the human and social sciences (SHS) within the Parisian and French university landscape. The aim is to consolidate a coherent, complementary SHS cluster that is easily understood by the partners of the four establishments. This involves a number of actions, such as structuring a pool of researchers capable of working in different disciplines and areas (building up a critical mass in linguistics, political science and the humanities). In this respect, Inalco will contribute significant strengths in languages and civilizations - the two being indissociable for a detailed understanding of an area - in several non-Western areas, and will benefit in parallel from the complementarities offered in SHS by Sorbonne Alliance. By way of example, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Sorbonne Nouvelle and Inalco have each recently submitted applications to the call for expressions of interest in SHS. Even though, as stipulated in the regulations, only one institution can submit a project, these three institutions have joined forces to develop them together. For its part, ESCP is contributing its analyses of the European economic model.

As SHS institutions, the four partners inevitably share common issues and interests, and thanks to this alliance will benefit from enhanced legitimacy to make their voices heard by the various national interlocutors.