GREY MATTER

50 000 students are preparing their professional future in Nantes.

The University of Nantes itself has nearly 32 000 students. With grandes écoles with a European dimension 
(Audencia, Ecoles des Mines, Ecole Centrale, Ecole Polytechnique, etc.) and recognised professional schools (Ecole de Design, Ecole de la Marine Marchande, Sciences Com', etc.), Nantes Métropole offers a wide range of high level training programmes.

240 000 students in Western France
Nantes is the headquarters of the Réseau des Universités de l’Ouest Atlantique, the Atlantic West Universities Network, a European inter-university co-operation centre which associates 10 universities, which is 12% of French university personnel. This network, which is the only one of its kind in France, was presented in the European University Association (EUA)’s 2007 good practice guide.

Over and above regional co-operation, the Nantes academic sector is developing a project for an international mobility centre for higher education and research. Its aims are to host and facilitate exchanges between French and foreign researchers while developing links between research and the economic sector.

Welcome foreign students and researchers!
Each year, several hundred foreign researchers spend time in Nantes covering periods of a few weeks to several months. The centre, which targets an internationally-mobile audience, will be defined with the opening of the Maison des chercheurs étrangers (Foreign Researcher Centre).

Designed to provide a high-level audience with excellent reception and integration conditions, this building contains reception and organisation facilities for foreign researchers as well as 24 apartments to house foreign researchers for between 2 weeks and one year. Located in the centre of Nantes, the building is run by the “Chercheurs étrangers à Nantes" association.

Twinned with the Maison des chercheurs étrangers, the Maison des échanges internationaux et de la francophonie has two objectives:
To welcome foreign students, in the broadest sense of the term, with a one-stop office for information, help with administrative processes, teaching orientation, integration, cultural events and support for language learning, to enable Nantes’ students to be mobile - information, inter-cultural exchanges, motivation for mobility.