It is a great pleasure and honour to take part in this seminar on Franco- British academic partnerships, and I would like first of all to thank the Embassy for organising it and giving us the opportunity to strengthen our connections and share our experiences and views of the future.

I am absolutely convinced that we are writing today a new chapter of our partnership. I do think indeed that something new is to come, something which actually started a few years ago but was recently reinforced, due to the extraordinary changes that occurred within both French and (to a lesser degree) British universities. More than ever, British academic institutions of higher education and research in their diversity (universities, institutes, schools, colleges) will become the privileged partners of French institutions, which also offer a great diversity of universities and Grandes Écoles. In this process, the École Normale Supérieure would like to play a major role.

The President of the International Board of the Conference of University Presidents (CUP), M. Jean-Pierre Gesson, has already mentioned the profound and ground-breaking changes which have affected French universities during the last three years, along with necessary and long-awaited reforms granting greater autonomy. More generally, a very broad reflection conducted by the universities themselves, notably within the CUP, has redefined their identity and their role in social life, since they are the very place for imparting knowledge and innovation, the surest way to wealth and prosperity for all in developed countries.