International

Presentation

Ever since its foundation in 1795, Inalco has been dedicated to building bridges between languages and cultures—in short, to being international. The Institute currently teaches about 100 languages and cultures, has students and faculty from more than 120 nationalities, and conducts research projects in more than 100 countries. The main mission of Inalco’s International Office is to develop cooperation with foreign universities. This involves both maintaining and expanding a global network of contacts and institutionalizing relations with our partners.

Given Inalco’s curricula, our international engagement aims first and foremost to offer Inalco students an immersion experience to complement their studies. We now have partnerships that cover all the geographic areas concerned by our courses and which allow students to spend time abroad as part of joint programs or research programs. Our international networking also aims to support teaching and research cooperation that enhances our faculty’s activities.

Through the Erasmus+ program, Inalco has developed both student- and faculty-exchanges with the main European centers traditionally described as “orientalist” (specializing in African and Asian studies), in particular with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and Turkey, whose languages and cultures are also taught at Inalco. Thanks to European programs such as Erasmus Mundus and the support of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, Inalco has also been able to strengthen its links with South-East Asia, Central Asia, Korea, the Arab countries, China, and Japan.

Today, Inalco’s international policy focuses on developing three areas:

1. distance learning, in particular by video-conference
2. joint programs such as dual degrees
3. intensive European Summer courses

Inalco’s involvement in the projects of the Sorbonne Paris Cité consortium, including the opening of four foreign branches in highly international universities in Singapore, São Paulo, Buenos-Ayres and Berlin, also opens up new prospects for our international reach.