INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE

Training engineers capable of working in an international context requires that they become proficient in foreign languages, the most important being English. A minimum level is required for all students, which equates a score of 800 on the TOEIC test or equivalent. A second modern language is compulsory and a wide choice is offered with eight languages offered including German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and Russian. We also provide French as a Foreign Language (FLE) for international students, subject to a sufficient number of applications. All graduate engineers are able to express themselves in three languages including their native language.

Active and interactive methods play an important role in the teaching of languages. These include privileging small classes, offering a variety of interactive approaches and developing communication skills (eg. a debating competition with other “grandes écoles”).

IMT Mines Alès have piloted the creation of an English MOOC: Unlock your English, which has attracted more than 25,000 participants.

All of the school's research teams have established important international partnerships. The teaching and research staff are members of European or international networks or consortia, attend conferences or symposiums abroad, publish mainly in international scientific journals and host many foreign doctoral students (particularly under joint supervision).

In order to reinforce international openness and interconnection, the school has set up a budget to encourage long international stays, such as "visiting professors", for its research professors in foreign institutions. Selected on the basis of an annual call for proposals, these stays must meet three criteria: expected benefits for the individual and expected benefits for the institution in the field of research and teaching. The teacher-researcher who wishes to apply must submit an application with a CV, a presentation of the host team, the objectives of the mobility for the teacher, his or her team and his or her home center, the expected benefits in terms of research, but also whether a link can be envisaged with training, as well as a budget in order to determine the amount of aid. If the application is clear and well filled out, and if it is completed with a favorable opinion from the head of the research team, then the teacher-researcher can present it to a jury composed of the Director of Research and the Director of International Action, possibly supplemented by a member of the training department and a center director. The jury decides whether or not to grant the mobility grant.

In return, IMT Mines Alès encourages the hosting of foreign professors from partner institutions. They participate in research and are in regular contact with our students. The school is able to hire and pay professors of high repute.

The benefits of this arrangement are significant: development of international partnerships, joint publications and research projects, internships for our students in the host laboratory, signing of framework agreements and agreements for dual degree programs. The system has recently been extended to doctoral students in their second year of study.

On the basis of a project and the expected benefits (for the individual, for the laboratory, for teaching), an incentive budget supports these stays. About ten research professors have benefited from this program.