Universite De Pau Et Des Pays De L’adour (France)
The Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (UPPA) is a public multidisciplinary university located in the south-west of France near Spain. It is a multi-sites university, with five campuses located in the cities of Pau, Bayonne, Anglet, Tarbes and Mont de Marsan. The UPPA offers training in initial, continuing, alternating or apprenticeship programs, and prepares for Bachelor degrees, Master degrees in its three colleges (College STEE – Sciences and Technologies for Energy and Environment; College EEI – European and International Studies; College SSH – Social Sciences and Humanities) and PhD degrees in its two doctoral schools. The UPPA also has two University Institutes of Technology (IUT) and two engineering schools (ENSGTI and ISABTP) in its College STEE and a management school (IAE) in its College EEI. During the academic year 2022/2023, the UPPA had 12,908 students, 2,093 foreign students, 969 teaching staff, 690 administrative staff and 19 research units.
The UPPA is one of the 17 French universities of excellence recognized thanks to the I-Site label (Initiatives – Scientific Innovation, Territories, Economy) obtained in 2017 for the “Energy and Environment Solutions”, E2S. The UPPA relies on a high-level research consortium UPPA-INRAe-INRIA-CNRS to, among other things, support the energy and environmental transition of companies and local authorities in the region. In 2018, the UPPA was also awarded by the 3rd Plan d’investissement d’avenir (national plan for investment) for its project SPACE toward bachelors’ students. The project NCU aims at developing a transformation of all bachelor degrees proposed by UPPA by proposing a progressive specialization of the curricula and an individual support for students. UPPA has taken a European dimension and is strongly supported by the European Commission. Since 2020, the UPPA is a funding member of the European Alliance, “UNITA Universitas Montium”, awarded by the Erasmus+ European Universities Initiative.
The alliance is composed by 10 comprehensive research universities as full partners from 5 countries: France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Romania; in addition two universities from Ukraine and Switzerland are associated partners. The alliance gathers together more than 248.000 students and 21.300 staff members. In 2023, UNITA developed a legal entity (GEIE) and is working to establish a European Degree Label. Besides sharing the commitment to contribute to the development of our societies and territories in a European dimension, UNITA’s members share three constitutive key features, the universities: are located in rural and cross-border mountain regions across southern, central and eastern Europe i.e. in ecosystems sharing similar challenges; intend to actively use Romance languages in addition to English, thus enhancing linguistic diversity and promoting inclusion; share innovative educational and research areas, especially in the fields of Renewable energies, Cultural heritage, and the Circular economy. Moreover, UPPA has a good experience in the management of European projects (H2020, SUDOE, Interreg programs including POCTEFA and Erasmus+). In addition, UPPA has been awarded with two COFUND projects, allowing the financing of international doctoral students:
- COFUND CHORAL (Cultural Heritage Outreach in RomAnce Languages);
- COFUND EDENE project (European Doctoral Programme in Energy and Environment).
Finally, the internationalisation of programmes is one of UPPA’s priorities. UPPA offers 16 Master degrees taught in English, organises E2S summer schools in UPPA’s fields of excellence, and offers programmes for international students (University Diploma in French Studies and summer courses in French language and culture). The UPPA has an International Welcome Desk to provide assistance and advice for incoming international students, researchers and guest professors regarding Visas, Housing, Banking, University enrolment and French language classes.
