This seminar on Franco-British academic partnerships comes at a time when French higher education is entering a phase of deep mutation, the main characteristics of which I wish to recall here.

Since 2007, higher education has been a top priority for the French government, which is keen to bring universities back to the centre of the French education and research system, so that it can become a fully fledged actor on the international stage, able to respond to its challenges.

The central element of this reform is the law on the Liberties and Responsibilities of Universities (LRU), passed on 10 August 2007. This law defines the missions of universities in the field of teaching and research, and in the organisation of student life, careers advice and professional integration – the last two of these having now explicitly become obligations for the institutions. It draws the broad outline of a new governance for universities, where the powers of presidents and the competences of university councils are redefined; it strengthens the contract between the state and the institutions and grants universities a large degree of autonomy in managing their budgets.

The LRU also encourages institutions to better position themselves in their local, regional and also international environment. Thus it is now possible for universities and other academic institutions to create ‘poles of research and higher education’ (PRES), which can lead to the merging of partner institutions, as has been the case in Strasbourg.