Strategy and objectives

The International Relations Steering Committee (CPRI) is an advisory body for all the statutory boards of Le Mans University. It consists of International Relations officers from the schools and faculties, geographical area advisers, discipline and subject advisers, the United States exchanges liaison officer, the Language Centre director and the International and Languages Centre administrative manager. It is chaired by the Vice President for International Relations and deals with all matters relating to the institution’s international policies, the aims of which are as follows:

Offer a structured international policy

• Coordinate internal initiatives relating to training and research
• Identify strategic axes for international development: student and teacher mobility, research projects, training projects, participation in regional and multilateral networks and programmes

Define the tools needed to:

• Conclude partnerships with foreign laboratories in connection with RFI projects and the numerous regional sources of funding obtained by the institution
• Promote greater integration of the university and its laboratories within an international environment

Encourage an internationally-orientated language policy

• Set up FLE (French as a foreign language) courses for international students enrolled in courses
• Promote the Francophone communities
• Implement a cross-disciplinary language policy and collaborative arrangements
• Offer more courses in a foreign language
• Strengthen the teaching of Languages for Specialists in Other Disciplines (LANSAD) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) 

Better integration of Europe in international relations

• Support researchers through the European project support service of the CoMUE University Bretagne Loire
• Better integration of the research dimension (H2020) into an international and European strategy of the institution
• Enhance international collaboration by responding to ERASMUS+ calls for projects, particularly those relating to mobility and the international dimension

Pursue the internationalisation of training courses

• Offer our international partners a controlled training policy based on double degree diplomas
• Strengthen our geographical priorities through targeted partnerships and consolidate them to obtain international joint supervision of courses
• Encourage initiatives involving distance educational resources
• Develop coordinated approaches for recruiting foreign students
• Increase the mobility of graduating students so that they have the opportunity to enrich their university studies through academic and cultural experience abroad

Supporting the internationalisation of research is essential for:

• Taking account of international issues in research and in terms of scientific innovation
• Supporting laboratories to structure robust partnerships in the most relevant geographic areas
• Strengthening the profile and the attractiveness of the university's major research axes at the international level
• Supporting scientific conferences and events
• Attracting the best doctoral students and the best researchers
• Increasing outward mobility and help with the development of research networks

An engineering division for European and international projects at the International and Language Centre:

CAP Europe (europe @ univ-lemans.fr), with two staff members of the Mans University, is a research support department that aims at increasing the participation of laboratories in European research programmes, in particular the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes.

The international relations service is also run by staff who are dedicated to supporting and establishing international training projects, particularly in the context of the Erasmus+ programme.