L’AERES publie la 1re évaluation cartographique de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche en France.
Today, the AERES publishes its first regional study*, regional education authority by regional education authority, of evaluations carried out in higher education and research between 2007 and 2010. In under 4 years, 10,000 evaluations have been carried out, each involving, on average, 4,500 French and international experts.
At the press presentation of the study "AERES 2010 – Regional analysis of evaluations carried out between 2007 and 2010", Jean-François Dhainaut, President of the AERES, highlighted five lessons to be learned:
- a very strong link exists between the quality of research and the quality of master's degrees, and vice versa;
- there is now real cooperation between universities and specialised higher education institutions, universities and research bodies, universities and teaching hospitals and between stakeholders in higher education and research and stakeholders in the socio-economic world;
- a new energy in large cities has been generated by preparation for recent calls for tenders such as Operation Campus and the Grand Emprunt (both national investment schemes prioritising higher education and research). These cities have dedicated serious consideration to collaborative projects leading to the setting-up of major technical platforms;
- within regions, outside the large cities, close partnerships are essential in order to reach the critical mass required to allow work on an equal footing with the large cities;
- recently created universities often fulfil their outreach mission most appreciably. Their research mission, which is more difficult to accomplish, can only be reached by developing links with the large cities.
To sum up, Jean-François Dhainaut points out that "the AERES has instilled a culture of quality and self-evaluation in universities and has initiated a dynamic of progress. This 1st geographical evaluation is an innovative and essential tool. It is now necessary to go further: to extend it to specialised higher education institutions, validate staff evaluation processes, and promote self-evaluation and international evaluation".
*The study can be downloaded, in its entirety or region by region, from the AERES website: http://tourl.fr/aflg
