When he applied to Sciences Po Paris at the beginning of the year, Pablo Foucault imagined himself entering the famous Emile-Boutmy amphitheater on rue Saint-Guillaume, at the elegant 7my capital district. “I put Paris as my first wish, spontaneously, like many other students…”explains the 18-year-old young man, originally from Montpellier. But it is on the Sciences Po Paris campus in… Poitiers, his second wish, where we will meet him this Tuesday morning in October. He is reading aloud a text by Simón Bolívar as part of a course on the construction of national states in South America. The teacher begins a conversation with the twenty “first years” present at her side, some of them from Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Spain… “It is exciting to have their vision on this story that directly concerns them”Pablo says enthusiastically after the lesson.
Outside, an endless autumn rain hits the facade of the old Jacobin convent, in the center of the capital of Poitou. The young man does not regret for a second having finally landed there after the admission process, based on high school grades and an oral exam where students must notably justify their two university desires. “I arrived a month ago and I already know everyone. The atmosphere is warm and the city is less impressive and impersonal than Paris.”summarizes Pablo. These are almost the same words used by students from the campuses of Menton (Alpes-Maritimes), Dijon, Reims, Nancy and Le Havre (Seine-Maritimes) interviewed by the world. The latter today welcomes, together with Poitiers, more than 60% of the school’s undergraduate students.
The choice of medium-sized cities
By opening annexes of Sciences Po Paris in provinces to welcome, as in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the cream of students from France and the entire world, the bet was bold. It also attracted attention when it was launched, in the early 2000s, by the school’s iconic former headmaster, Richard Descoings (1958-2012). The objective was, first of all, to breathe new life into the school’s development by increasing the size of the developments outside the historic Parisian precinct, where the walls could no longer be pushed. But “The idea was also to try to open Sciences Po socially and culturally by attracting more young French people from all over France and, above all, more international students”says Jeanne Lazarus, dean of the Sciences Po university faculty. It must be said before. “the institution was a little more in its bubble, with students mainly from privileged families, very French and very Parisian”.
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