International Partner Days, the event's come back

The 2022 edition of the International Partner Days, held on 12 and 13 October, was marked by the 25th anniversary of this emblematic event for our institution and the return to a face-to-face gathering. Some thirty partners representing 21 universities from Europe, Africa, and North and Latin America came to the event, the same number of participants as before the Covid period: an encouraging result that testifies to the continuing enthusiasm for this event.

On Wednesday 12 October, a "Partner Day" started with a conference "Coming out stronger, together", open to the INSA community as well, marking the return of international activities after the pandemic, with sustainable development as the main theme. The first round table brought together those responsible for the evolution of INSA training: Laurence Dupont, Anne Laure Ladier, Fatma Saïd-Touhami, Hugo Paris presented together the new SD&SR courses and projects, and more specifically the launch of a global UNESCO chair.

Thierry Marsick and Celine Lyoën from the City of Lyon took part in a second round table to introduce the « Plan Lumière », the consumption of urban lighting and Lyon's famous Festival of Lights, alongside their INSA collaborators Jean-Michel Deleuil and Leonardo Cardenas from the Civil Engineering and Urban Planning Department.

Finally, Maria Mont Verdaguer, philosopher in ethics, as well as Emmanuel Rondeau, INSA alumni and director of wildlife documentaries for WWF® among others, each gave a talk to make us take a step back and question our perception of sustainable development and the expectations we have on future engineers.

In the afternoon, two guided tours of the campus were offered with the participation of Elise Pencé, Director of Real Estate, and Loïs Guillot, Campus Development Project Manager.

On Thursday 13 October, the traditional "Study Fair" day invited partners to set up a stand in the colours of their institution and provide information to hundreds of INSA students, as mobility is compulsory at INSA in the 4th or 5th year of the engineering curriculum. The International Partner Days are the starting point of the mobility process for students who have until 16 November to choose two destinations on the internal application portal.

After the online editions organized successively in 2020 and 2021, the European and International Relations Office has been reflecting on the re-launch of the event in person, taking into account the concern about the carbon footprint of international travel. In the end, the partner universities were invited to participate in a hybrid event that would meet several goals: to offer a quality program in order to renew ties that had been weakened by the Covid break, but also to allow more flowing and spontaneous exchanges with the INSA community than in an online setting. The intention was also to avoid the occasional and individual travels of foreign delegations throughout the year in order to share the efforts of internal teams, but also to create inter-university interactions within INSA Lyon. The event will therefore be renewed next year in the hope that a lifting of restrictions will make the participation of Asian partners possible.