International relations in the second half of 2019-2020

The second half of the 2019-2020 academic year will have been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 health crisis. What effects has this international pandemic had on our students' mobility and on Inalco's relations with its partners around the world?
Relations internationales, Illustration.
Relations internationales, Illustration. © DR‎

Indeed, as early as January, the spread of the epidemic in China forced our institution to suspend outgoing mobility to the most affected countries. Inalco's International Relations Department (DRI) provided personalized follow-up for Inalco students assigned to China, South Korea and the rest of the world. Many students had to return to France, just as the pandemic was reaching Europe and France was confining itself.
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During this time, Inalco kept in touch with its university partners and French diplomatic posts abroad, and monitored the situation of its students outside France on a daily basis, most of them in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Russia and Turkey. Students and trainees who wished to interrupt their stay were invited to do so, and DRI helped them to do so, notably by setting up emergency financial aid to cover unforeseen costs of accommodation and cancelled transport tickets. Particular attention was also paid to the well-being of international students who remained in Paris during the lockdown, in conditions that were sometimes distressing for them.



Despite this unprecedented situation, Inalco is pursuing its partnership projects around the world, with a particular interest this year in cooperation with the Anglo-Saxon world (Great Britain, USA and Canada). Inalco sincerely hopes that outgoing and incoming mobility can be restored to normal as soon as possible. In the meantime, our school remains in constant contact with its international partners to study and anticipate all the arrangements for the 2020/2021 academic year. In addition, Inalco hopes to open its summer schools next year, which were scheduled for the summer of 2020, including the French as a Foreign Language School, whose purpose is of course to welcome students from abroad and introduce them to our environment.















Inalco's international partners are in constant contact with us.




Gilles Forlot

Vice-president, international relations