The UT Group’s first vir­tu­al open days were held on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 28, 2026. Online via LinkedIn, Face­book, YouTube and Insta­gram, many inter­net users were able to ask ques­tions of var­i­ous speak­ers from UTBM (Belfort-Mont­béliard), UTC-Com­pieg­ne and UTT-Troyes.

Hun­dreds of inter­net users, includ­ing many high school stu­dents, logged on to social media on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 28, to par­tic­i­pate in the UT Group’s “open days” and learn about engi­neer­ing pro­grammes at the uni­ver­si­ties of tech­nol­o­gy, their career oppor­tu­ni­ties, and the stu­dent expe­ri­ence, through tes­ti­mo­ni­als from stu­dents and alum­ni. This pro­vid­ed a con­crete vision of the pro­fes­sions and careers avail­able upon com­ple­tion of engi­neer­ing degree qual­i­fi­ca­tions. Prof. Claire Rossi, Direc­tor and Vice-Chan­cel­lor of UTC-Com­pieg­ne, opened the morn­ing by high­light­ing the com­mon fea­tures shared by the three schools with­in the UT Group, such as the mod­u­lar course mod­el, inter­na­tion­al out­reach, and project-based learn­ing. For his part, Alexan­dre Vial, from the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion and Ped­a­gogy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy of Troyes (UTT), empha­sized the val­ue of the “à la carte cur­ricu­lum” and how stu­dents can freely choose any spe­cial­iza­tion, with a gen­uine empha­sis on their per­son­al com­mit­ment. At UTC-Com­pieg­ne, his coun­ter­part, Antoine Jouglet, elab­o­rat­ed on the inter­na­tion­al dimen­sion with­in the UT net­work. “Stu­dents ben­e­fit from the strength of an inter­na­tion­al net­work with 362 active aca­d­e­m­ic part­ner­ships, includ­ing 59 inter­na­tion­al dual degree pro­grammes and 2 alliances of Euro­pean uni­ver­si­ties. This is now a major asset for the employ­a­bil­i­ty of our graduates.”

A Case in Point

Julie Bened, a stu­dent at UTBM (Belfort-Mont­béliard), shared her expe­ri­ence with inter­na­tion­al mobil­i­ty. “In my final high school year, I want­ed to study com­put­er engi­neer­ing but also fol­low a pro­gramme that would open me up to the world and allow me to work inter­na­tion­al­ly lat­er on. After doing some research, I dis­cov­ered the UT Group. What appealed to me first was the cus­tomized cur­ricu­lum. But anoth­er fac­tor that real­ly tipped the scales the UT Group’s inter­na­tion­al focus, the num­ber of aca­d­e­m­ic part­ner­ships, and the oppor­tu­ni­ties to pur­sue dual degrees. What real­ly stood out to me was the pos­si­bil­i­ty of going on an exchange as ear­ly as the first semes­ter of the sec­ond year, where­as in oth­er sim­i­lar pro­grammes, exchange oppor­tu­ni­ties aren’t avail­able until much lat­er in the pro­gramme. At the UT Group, you can even go on two exchanges.” Julie chose to spend a semes­ter study­ing in Chi­na. “On a per­son­al lev­el, this expe­ri­ence was very reward­ing for me. And, pro­fes­sion­al­ly, this immer­sion proved very enriching.”

Fostering an entrepreneurial spirit

Anoth­er strength of the UT Group is its close ties to the busi­ness world and its focus on fos­ter­ing stu­dents’ entre­pre­neur­ial spir­it. The UTT V ‑Lock was found­ed by Antoine Desveron­nieres, a stu­dent major­ing in Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing, and Romain Rudent, a com­put­er sci­ence and infor­ma­tion sys­tems engi­neer­ing stu­dent. UTT helped launch and devel­op this entre­pre­neur­ial project. More­over, the deploy­ment of V‑Lock in down­town Troyes illus­trates the con­nec­tion between the UTs and their local com­mu­ni­ties. The start­up won the region­al prize award­ed by Pépite France, the Stu­dent-Entre­pre­neurs net­work, for its 2024 edi­tion. This entre­pre­neur­ial project con­sists of a secure, con­nect­ed bike dock­ing sta­tion that, most impor­tant­ly, requires no civ­il engi­neer­ing work for instal­la­tion. “It’s a true inno­va­tion for com­pa­nies and munic­i­pal­i­ties look­ing to pro­mote sus­tain­able mobil­i­ty for their employ­ees or res­i­dents,” adds the founder. It’s a solar-pow­ered bike park­ing sta­tion. This inno­va­tion address­es theft con­cerns and makes it eas­i­er to use bikes in the city. The sys­tem received a spe­cial men­tion at the 2025 Road Safe­ty Inno­va­tion Challenge”

Spotlight on the UTC Entrepreneurship Hub

(DPSEE), pro­vid­ed details on the entre­pre­neur­ship com­po­nent. “The DPSEE helps devel­op and struc­ture rela­tion­ships between UTC and the socio-eco­nom­ic sec­tor and sup­ports the entre­pre­neur­ial spir­it. This Direc­torate is housed with­in UTC’s Daniel Thomas Inno­va­tion Cen­tre, a build­ing that is much more than just a space. It is a key hub where education—through our students—meets research—particularly through our fac­ul­ty members—as well as the busi­ness world, thanks to our numer­ous indus­tri­al part­ner­ships, since UTC focus­es on applied research. “In this build­ing, stu­dents have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to study, exper­i­ment, pro­to­type… and receive sup­port for their busi­ness cre­ation projects,” empha­sizes Vanes­sa Caig­nault. Indeed, the DPSEE, through its Entre­pre­neur­ship Cen­tre led by Vir­ginie Lamarche, fos­ters an entre­pre­neur­ial spir­it and sup­ports stu­dents with a project, regard­less of its stage of devel­op­ment. These stu­dents ben­e­fit from UTC-spe­cif­ic pro­grammes, such as the Elite Entre­pre­neur­ship track, which offers flex­i­ble sched­ul­ing, com­pre­hen­sive sup­port and fund­ing. Lever­ag­ing its ecosys­tem, the Entre­pre­neur­ship Hub con­nects stu­dents with key play­ers such as the UTC Foun­da­tion for Inno­va­tion, the iTer­ra incu­ba­tor (of which UTC-Com­pieg­ne is a co-founder), as well as Pépite Hauts-de-France Ouest and the Sor­bonne Uni­ver­si­ty Alliance [clus­ter], all of which are based with­in the Inno­va­tion Cen­tre. Thus, the DPSEE Entre­pre­neur­ship Hub serves as the entry point for any stu­dent inter­est­ed in entre­pre­neur­ship, whether they have a project or not!

KD