The Franco-German model

Modern buildings, well-maintained lawns, an atmosphere that is peaceful to work: the Franco-German University (UFA in French or DFH in German) offers an ideal setting for a campus. Even if you take more than a cursory glance around, you will not find a single student or researcher here! And there’s a reason why: the UFA-DFH is not a university, strictly speaking, but rather a special structure placed at the head of a vast network of higher education and research establishments situated in France and Germany.
Founded in 1997 after the signing of an intergovernmental agreement in Weimar, this bi-national structure began to function two years later. In reality, the UFA-DFH has taken over where a pre-existing structure left off, the Franco-German College for Higher Education (CFAES), which offered joint programmes. Set up in Saarbrücken, a city as it is located on the Franco-German border, the UFA-DFH is mainly occupied with putting in place integrated Franco-German programmes.
A strategic platform
Since its birth ten years ago, 144 programmes have been launched, including 17 tri-national ones that associate other countries such as Canada, Spain, Italy,
Luxembourg, Poland, the United Kingdom or Russia… “Our programmes are aimed at covering all disciplines and all degree levels in the framework of the Bologna procedure, as well as all training programmes of French grandes écoles (higher education institutes, editorial note),” explains Professor Pierre Monnet, President of the UFA-DFH since 1 January 2009, and Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris.
The UFA-DFH does not award degrees; rather, it functions as a strategic platform that establishes contact between, supports and advises the member establishments of its network, finances programmes, and guarantees the assessment, certification and quality assurance of the bi-national degrees delivered by member establishments. Students enrolled in Franco-German programmes can be divided into three similarly sized groups: 1/3 students of law, humanities and social sciences, 1/3 students of management-commerce and 1/3 students of engineering. Amongst the subjects little or not at all represented, medicine is top of the list. This is explained by numerous differences in the German and French systems: Germany practises a policy based on the “numerus clauses” (fixed quotas), whereas in France, the real selection begins at the end of the first year of studies. 163 German and French establishments are members of the network headed by UFA-DFH. This network includes universities, but also French grandes écoles and German technological universities.
Students are enrolled in 144 programmes, 25 Franco-German doctoral colleges or Franco-German co-tutelles. “We are seeking to train bilingual managers needed by both our economies, societies and education and research systems,” emphasises Pierre Monnet.
75% of the budget finances programmes
The UFA-DFH is a relatively light structure if we consider its mode of functioning. With an average of 20 full-time and 5 part-time employees, it has a budget of 10 million euros for 2009 (+ 6.1% compared with the previous year). This budget is doubled by the two governments in equal shares: 5 million euros are granted by France (via the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and 5 million by Germany (via the same ministries, but especially by the Länder or States). Around 75% of the budget is used to finance programmes, 11.5% to finance research (co-tutelle theses, summer schools, conferences, colloquiums, privileged partnerships between Franco-German doctoral laboratories and colleges…) and 10% to operational fees. The UFA-DFH’s results are conclusive: in 1999, there were “only” 1,356 French and German students enrolled in joint programmes and the target set by governments was to double this figure in the space of ten years. Rather than doubling, it has more than tripled: 4,600 students are now enrolled in integrated bi-national programmes with the UFA-DFH.
Increase in student scholarship sums
The UFA-DFH could expand even further, but the economic crisis has reduced
budgets. “This year, we had 30 requests for integrated programmes and we have only been able to finance 7 out of the 21 assessed positively,” points out Pierre Monnet. But while political will seems genuine – the UFA-DFH is one of the rare Franco-German institutions whose budget has increased this year – it seems inevitable that the institution will call on other complementary sources of financing, sooner or later.
The aim would be to double the current budget via sponsoring and partnerships with companies, without letting go of public financing, as the French and German Ministries of Research have shown considerable budgetary ambitions for training societies hungry for the spread of knowledge and innovation in Europe.
The prime beneficiaries are the students themselves: the total of the budget increase awarded to the UFA-DFH this year will thus allow student scholarships to rise from 250 to 270 euros per month spent in the partner country from the next academic year onwards.

Three questions for… Pierre Monnet, President of UFA-DFH
Commerce International: What advantages are there for your students?
Pierre Monnet: “The need for bilingual managers has not ceased to increase despite the crisis. The main ‘consumers’ of Franco-German degrees are bi-national companies such as EADS. Students with a UFA-DFH degree do not stay unemployed for long. The UFA-DFH has acquired solid experience allowing it to train over 6,500 bi-national managers. Globalisation does not exclude, but on the contrary, presupposes, well-integrated bi-nationalisation, for the most important thing is to first of all know understand others well.”
How can a higher education institution join the UFA-DFH network?
P.M.: “We have strict specifications that must be respected by any establishment wishing to set up a programme under the UFA-DFH label with a partner establishment. They include objective selection criteria such as discipline excellence, bilingualism, interculturality, equality of rights, strong mobility…”
Do there exist any other programmes similar to the UFA-DFH in the university world?
P.M.: “There is only the Atlantis programme which aims to create programmes between Europe and North America, as well as Franco-Italian and Franco-Dutch networks. But all these networks are much less developed than that of the UFA-DFH, which now has ten years of experience. As for Erasmus, it is undergoing a stagnation phase even if we have to admit that it provided a decisive push to student mobility in Europe. Integrated Franco-German programmes financed by the UFA-DFH guarantee a long stay in the partner country, as well as the obtaining of a double degree, even a triple degree, in other words, a real added value compared with ‘mere’ mobility.”