For eight years we have had a hugely popular undergraduate exchange programme for third year students with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). We have been working to set up a parallel exchange with École Centrale Paris, one of the Grandes Écoles most distinguished in Engineering, boasting Henri Schlumberger, Gustave Eiffel, Andre Michelin, Robert Peugeot and Jean Pierre Peugeot amongst its alumni.
The wording of the legal agreement between the two universities is being finalised and the first students will go to France in September this year. We expect two students to go in each direction in the first year.
The students will be chosen based on both academic and linguistic ability. The academic selection process will be similar to that currently used for the MIT exchange. The linguistic selection will be managed by the Department of Engineering's Language Unit. Only students at an advanced level of ability in French will be allowed to participate in the exchange. As students who have participated in the MIT exchange programme agree, the opportunity to work abroad and get a global perspective is invaluable.
The launch of the exchange programme is timely and in keeping with the 'entente amicale' that Mr Sarkozy and Mr Brown wish to nurture between the two countries.
