Back to Campus: The 3 Highlights of the Year on the Dijon Campus

On Monday, 25 September 2023, 91 first-year students attended the official start of the new academic year at Sciences Po's Dijon campus, in the presence of Mathias Vicherat, Director of Sciences Po, Sergei Guriev, Sciences Po's Provost, Jeanne Lazarus, Dean of the Undergraduate College, Lukas Macek, Campus Director, Laëtitia Martinez, Vice-President of the Bourgogne Franche-Comté Region and Sladana Zivkovic, Deputy Mayor of Dijon and Vice-President of Dijon Métropole. The inaugural lecture was given by Pascal Lamy, coordinator of the Jacques Delors Think Tank network (Paris, Berlin, Brussels), vice-president of the Paris Peace Forum, former European Commissioner and Director-General of the WTO. He addressed the students on the subject of "The European Union and the challenge of a world that is becoming more and more brutal". A meeting was also organised on this occasion between Sergiy Kvit, President of NaUKMA - one of Sciences Po's Ukrainian partner universities - and students from the campus.

Created in 2001, the Dijon campus is home to the European Union, Central and Eastern Europe geographical minor. The most represented nationalities are those of the countries that have joined the European Union since 2004: Czechs, Hungarians, Romanians, Poles and Slovaks. This campus is an ideal place to understand the debates taking place within the European Union on migration crises, the issue of “illiberal democracies”, Turkey's candidacy and those of the Western Balkans, and the future of the European Union “post-Brexit”. The campus also provides an opportunity to discover the various issues surrounding Russia, Ukraine and the other countries of the “post-Soviet” region.

What will be the 3 highlights on the Dijon campus this academic year?

• The European elections in June 2024, from the election evening on 9 June 2024 to a series of conferences on the key issues at stake.
• Support for Ukraine, with on-campus activities for students as well as the general public, including with CIVICA, the European University of Social Sciences, and its CIVICA for Ukraine initiative.
• Hosting Sciences Po's Collégiades in May 2024, a sports and arts tournament bringing together students from the 7 campuses of the Undergraduate College.

To find out more, watch this video presentation of the Dijon campus: