To ensure that the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy of Com­pieg­ne is rec­og­nized more than ever for the qual­i­ty of its stu­dent life, the cre­ation of a Stu­dent Life Direc­torate (DVE) at UTC-Com­pieg­ne rep­re­sents a major strate­gic step in the evo­lu­tion of this unique insti­tu­tion­al model.

His­tor­i­cal­ly, UTC-Com­pieg­ne has always placed a strong empha­sis on stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions and stu­dent engagement—hallmarks of an edu­ca­tion­al mis­sion found­ed on respon­si­bil­i­ty, inno­va­tion and auton­o­my over 50 years ago. With more than 4 300 stu­dents and over 110 active stu­dent soci­eties, the vital­i­ty of the cam­pus is not a fringe fac­tor: it is at the heart of the UTC expe­ri­ence. “By enabling the role of the stu­dent life offi­cer to evolve into a func­tion­al direc­torate inte­grat­ed into the University’s man­age­ment team and even into the select exec­u­tive com­mit­tee (Comex) led by the UTC-Com­pieg­ne direc­tor, Prof. Claire Rossi, and giv­en a for­mal man­date offi­cial­ly vot­ed by the Aca­d­e­m­ic Board, we have cho­sen to insti­tu­tion­al­ly rec­og­nize this dimen­sion as pro­vid­ing strate­gic lever­age in its own right. This choice remains rare and unique among French engi­neer­ing schools. In most com­pa­ra­ble insti­tu­tions, stu­dent life is often attached to an aca­d­e­m­ic depart­ment or an admin­is­tra­tive office, with­out hav­ing a defined strate­gic lead­er­ship role at the cen­tral gov­er­nance lev­el, with­in the Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee, or the Exec­u­tive Board,” explains UTC Direc­tor Prof. Claire Rossi.

DVE and SDVE in Action

Very few engi­neer­ing schools have cho­sen to appoint a func­tion­al direc­tor specif­i­cal­ly ded­i­cat­ed to this mis­sion. Even though this struc­ture exists in cer­tain renowned ‘grandes écoles’, it rarely takes the form of a depart­ment inte­grat­ed into the exec­u­tive with a statu­to­ry man­date com­pa­ra­ble to that of oth­er func­tion­al direc­tors. In this sense, UTC-Com­pieg­ne dis­tin­guish­es itself through its adopt­ing a proac­tive approach. The DVE (French acronym for the new Stu­dent Life Direc­torate) has been assigned the task to ensure cross-func­tion­al and struc­tured over­sight of all issues relat­ed to stu­dent life: imple­men­ta­tion of the 2023–2026 Stu­dent Life Mas­ter Plan, coor­di­na­tion of stu­dent soci­eties, man­age­ment and facil­i­ta­tion of the CVEC, coor­di­na­tion with the FSDIE, sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of pre­ven­tion ini­tia­tives (VSS, addic­tions, inclu­sion, dis­abil­i­ty), liais­ing with the pre­ven­tive med­i­cine ser­vice, engag­ing with the Crous and region­al part­ners, sup­port­ing stu­dent ini­tia­tives, ensur­ing legal and reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance for events, and con­tribut­ing to insti­tu­tion­al indi­ca­tors. “This struc­ture enables us to anchor stu­dent life with­in a frame­work of qual­i­ty, process con­sis­ten­cy, and con­tin­u­ous improve­ment, in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with all depart­ments and services.”

“Student life is a key determinant for success”

This deci­sion also reflects strate­gic fore­sight. Dur­ing the insti­tu­tion­al eval­u­a­tion con­duct­ed by the High Coun­cil for the Eval­u­a­tion of Research and High­er Edu­ca­tion (HCERES)—whose final report was sub­mit­ted in Octo­ber 2025, pend­ing offi­cial publication—one of the areas for improve­ment focused on the struc­tur­ing and strength­ened man­age­ment of stu­dent life pol­i­cy. “By cre­at­ing the DVE even before the report’s offi­cial pub­li­ca­tion, UTC-Com­pieg­ne chose to act quick­ly and con­crete­ly, demon­strat­ing its abil­i­ty to antic­i­pate rec­om­men­da­tions and swift­ly trans­late them into oper­a­tional deci­sions. This respon­sive­ness reflects a gov­er­nance mod­el that is atten­tive and com­mit­ted to a cul­ture of con­tin­u­ous improve­ment. The DVE is part of a broad­er vision: the under­stand­ing that aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess, per­son­al ful­fil­ment, com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment and qual­i­ty of life form an insep­a­ra­ble whole,” empha­sizes Claire Rossi. “In a con­text of increased com­pe­ti­tion among insti­tu­tions and grow­ing atten­tion to men­tal health, inclu­sion and stu­dent well-being, a ded­i­cat­ed strate­gic lead­er­ship func­tion becomes a fac­tor enhanc­ing attrac­tive­ness and cred­i­bil­i­ty. Stu­dent life is not an after­thought. It is a deter­min­ing fac­tor in suc­cess, per­se­ver­ance and brings you a sense of belong­ing. The DVE serves to high­light the impor­tance of this vision not only inter­nal­ly but also exter­nal­ly among the institution’s part­ners (the Region, aca­d­e­m­ic part­ners, etc.).” By insti­tu­tion­al­iz­ing this Direc­torate, the UTC is thus affirm­ing a mod­el con­sis­tent with its iden­ti­ty: an engi­neer­ing school that is both demand­ing and atten­tive, inno­v­a­tive and respon­si­ble, tech­no­log­i­cal and human­is­tic. The cre­ation of the DVE improves the clar­i­ty of our pol­i­cy for stu­dents, part­ners, local author­i­ties and gov­ern­ing bod­ies, while bol­ster­ing the role of stu­dent life as a strate­gic pil­lar of our insti­tu­tion­al mission.

Student Life at the Heart of the Institution

This new Stu­dent Life Direc­torate fur­ther demon­strates our com­mit­ment to col­lab­o­rat­ing with all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers (stu­dent soci­eties, stu­dent rep­re­sen­ta­tives, UTC depart­ments and ser­vices, local and region­al part­ners). “Advanc­ing stu­dent life pol­i­cy, in line with UTC’s over­all pol­i­cy, means main­tain­ing this valu­able con­nec­tion with stu­dents, because the best way to act ‘for’ them is to act ‘with’ them,” says Véronique Hédou, research sci­en­tist-cum-lec­tur­er, now Direc­tor of Stu­dent Life. “We think togeth­er because we’re right in the midst of things. Stu­dents are a force to be reck­oned with!”

Focus on the Student Life Improvement Plan (SDVE)

improv­ing stu­dent health and well-being, while pro­mot­ing an inclu­sive stu­dent life. The SDVE also com­pris­es 3 poles, 14 goals, 38 objec­tives, and 132 actions. As of Sep­tem­ber 2025, 27 actions were com­plet­ed and 52 under­way, such as the cre­ation of the Phare (Stu­dent Sup­port and Resource Cen­tre) in Sep­tem­ber 2024, the inau­gu­ra­tion of the Gym­na­si­um at the Rober­val res­i­dence (CROUS) in April 2025, the “research nights” orga­nized by the Research Depart­ment in 2025, the cre­ation of a safe zone dur­ing stu­dent par­ties (linked to the VSS lis­ten­ing sup­port unit), the orga­ni­za­tion of a “well-being week” before final exams in June 2025, and the instal­la­tion of “the bub­ble” with­in the stu­dent soci­ety cen­tre (tent + Fat­boy bean bags) in June 2025.

- CVEC (Con­tri­bu­tion de Vie Étu­di­ante et de Cam­pus) — The CVEC is a nation­al com­pul­so­ry sub­scrip­tion (105 € for aca­d­e­m­ic year 2025‑2026) to be paid by all stu­dents pri­or to reg­is­tra­tion.
- FSDIE (Sol­i­dar­i­ty Fund and Devel­op­ment of stu­dent ini­tia­tives)
- VSS stands for Vio­lences Sex­istes et Sexuelles. 

KD