FRANCE is calling

In the last week of July, while you may be studying frantically for your finals, I shall be strolling down the Champs Elysees, wandering through the Place de la Concorde, seeing the glories of the world’s works of art in the Louvre, sampling the night-life at Montmartre and cruising on the Seine, all in Paris, France.

I shall think of you. I shall be wondering why more engineering students are not clamouring for the opportunity to do an exchange term or two in France. France is a beautiful country with a well-developed high-quality engineering education system. We have many exchange partners there and there are lots of spaces not taken up.

Here are some examples:

1. École Centrale Paris: This is one of the major engineering schools in a group called Paris-tech. You get to live in this glorious city.
2. Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG): Grenoble likes to be known as the Capital of the Alps. It is surrounded by mountains, great for skiing and snowboarding, but is also a centre for the chemical, electronics and nuclear industries. It’s worth a term’s study in this quality school.
3. Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC): Compiègne is an ancient city just 60 km north of Paris. It is famous for being the place where Joan of Arc was captured in the 15^th century, and for the location of the signing of the armistice at the end of the first world war. UTC is the first of the new universities in France; when it began, its authorities consulted with UW, and as a result it has a form of co-op, derived from ours.
4. Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse (INSA Toulouse): Toulouse is in the south of France. It is the centre of the French Aerospace industry, the HQ of Airbus and the location of the Toulouse Space Centre, the third largest in Europe. INSA Toulouse is part of a consortium of institutions of higher education which make up the third largest university in France, and one of the oldest in Europe. Toulouse is near both the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees, some of the highest mountains in France.
5. Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA Lyon): The INSAs form a special group of Engineering schools in France (there are several such groupings), and INSA Lyon is the largest. Lyon is the third largest city of France, with easy access to Paris, Geneva and Marseilles. The greater Lyon area is just a little smaller than the GTA in population. Lyon is a UNESCO world heritage site. It has (according to Wikipedia) developed a reputation as the capital of gastronomy in France. You can eat well there. It is also a major centre for the chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotech industries. The city contains a significant software industry with a particular focus on video games (Wikipedia). INSA Lyon is situated on the same campus as our other exchange partner in Lyon, which we mention next.
6. École Supérieure de Chimie Physique Électronique de Lyon (CPE de Lyon): CPE de Lyon is smaller and more specialized than INSA Lyon, but its name, École Supérieure , tells you that it is highly regarded in the French Engineering education system. We have negotiated a special arrangement with CPE de Lyon that enables UW Engineers, who have done a two-term exchange there, to return after 4B and, in just one year, obtain the “Master” degree, which is the professional qualification for Engineers in Europe. It’s worth looking into.
7. École Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Metz (ENIM): Metz is about as far away from Toulouse as you can get in France. It is located in the north-east, near the Luxembourg border, and near the Rhine, the border between France and Germany. ENIM is one of a group of Engineering schools known as the ENI’s. The town was much fought over in the Franco-Prussian war (1871), World War 1, and World War 2, and is located on the Moselle River. ENIM’s campus is somewhat like UW’s in that it is bounded by a ring, not a road as here, but a river. The campus is on an island which gives it a feeling of isolation, but is quite near the centre of the city.

I hope these ‘tastes of France’ will whet your appetite for exchange. You too could enjoy the sights and sounds of Paris.  You could study in France, become completely bilingual, broaden your knowledge of the world, and do all this without compromising your degree program at Waterloo. For details, get in touch with the Engineering Exchange Office. It’s on the ground floor of CPH in the First Year Office, probably on your way to the Engineering C&D.