The healthy state of academic cooperation between France and the United Kingdom reflects the dynamic relationship which continues to exist between our two countries. The papers presented in this book bear witness to this dynamism and the willingness of higher education institutions and agencies to work together to develop innovative and creative models for academic partnerships to face the future challenges in higher education.

The United Kingdom, like France, is convinced of the long-term gains that can be achieved through academic mobility and collaboration. For students, an international experience, at an age when friendships and impressions are forged for life, is often a decisive moment in their personal and professional lives. For academic staff involved in joint programmes and exchanges, the opportunity to open a window onto another culture, another way of thinking and teaching, is a motivating and strengthening experience. And collaboration in research and innovation, particularly strong between British and French universities, enables an efficient use of skills and resources, and associates our countries in cutting-edge research to help find solutions to the grand challenges of our time.

The value of these collaborations – which work best when done at institutional level between autonomous institutions – is enormous. Over and above the increased mutual understanding of our two countries and cultures – the sort of understanding one can really only get by living in and experiencing a country and its language, culture and norms on the ground – is the opportunity it offers to students, academics and researchers to develop the cultural awareness and transferable skills that are now so attractive to employers in an increasingly globalised world.

The British Embassy in Paris, in collaboration with the British Council in France and the French Embassy in London, has contributed in its own way to the flow of students between our two countries, through the privately-funded Entente Cordiale scholarship scheme, founded in 1995 by President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister John Major. Since that time some 400 students have benefited from a scholarship to study in France or the UK through the programme and in almost every case this experience has brought them closer to achieving their professional goals.