At UTC-Com­pieg­ne, exchange pro­grammes through part­ner­ships with 226 inter­na­tion­al uni­ver­si­ties round the world allow stu­dents to com­plete a semes­ter or their final-year project, to pur­sue a dou­ble degree, or under­take a tech­ni­cal intern­ship in a ful­ly immer­sive envi­ron­ment. Cer­ti­fied “Bien­v­enue en France,” UTC-Com­pieg­ne is among the French high­er edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions that have also devel­oped sup­port sys­tems for inter­na­tion­al stu­dents. Cécile Gué­gan, a 5th year Bio-engi­neer­ing stu­dent at UTC, chose Tokyo, Japan, for a semes­ter immersed in bio­log­i­cal engineering.

In Feb­ru­ary, after six months in the Land of the Ris­ing Sun, Cécile Gué­gan returned home, fas­ci­nat­ed and almost over­whelmed by the sheer extent to which Japan­ese cul­ture dif­fers from West­ern con­cepts. “Japan is a real cul­ture shock,” says the 22-year-old UTC stu­dent, who takes away “the deep respect for oth­ers and for the envi­ron­ment, the high stan­dards and atten­tion to detail that form the foun­da­tion of Japan­ese life.” For some­one who has already lived in the Unit­ed States, Eng­land, and Ger­many, trav­el­ling is a way of life and part of her DNA: “Liv­ing abroad is almost a neces­si­ty. My par­ents’ fre­quent moves shaped me and opened my mind.” After attend­ing a French high school in Ger­many, she head­ed to France and was admit­ted to UTC in 2021, where the pro­posed “à la carte” cur­ricu­lum was so impor­tant. “Its TSH depart­ment allowed me to take cours­es in phi­los­o­phy, lin­guis­tics, man­age­ment… It real­ly com­ple­ments the engi­neer­ing cours­es and helps you stay open-minded.”

A source of fulfilment

After deep­en­ing her knowl­edge in cell cul­ture and tis­sue engi­neer­ing, immunol­o­gy, prod­uct for­mu­la­tion, bioin­for­mat­ics, ethics and risk man­age­ment, under­grad­u­ate Gué­gan left last Sep­tem­ber for Japan and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tokyo, one of Asia’s most pres­ti­gious insti­tu­tions. A new chal­lenge to con­tin­ue her stud­ies, devel­op her tech­ni­cal skills her exper­i­men­tal and pre­ci­sion tech­niques at the Sakai Laben and Tei-Oka­da lab­o­ra­to­ries, which spe­cial­ize in the design of bio­com­pat­i­ble hydro­gels for tis­sue recon­struc­tion. “And to improve my Japan­ese lan­guage skills!” adds Cécile. A true oppor­tu­ni­ty for mobil­i­ty, UTC’s exchange pro­grammes are a source of per­son­al growth, allow­ing stu­dents “to see some­thing dif­fer­ent at close hand, to under­stand oth­er approach­es and not to rest on one’s lau­rels,” she con­tin­ues. “Stay­ing objec­tive is essen­tial. For UTC, these pro­grammes are also a way to expand its inter­na­tion­al reach and that’s every bit as impor­tant.” In ear­ly March, the stu­dent moved to Paris for an intern­ship at the Chanel Group’s research and inno­va­tion labs in Pan­tin. A des­ti­na­tion clos­er to Com­pieg­ne, in a demand­ing and stim­u­lat­ing envi­ron­ment while she con­tin­ues her stud­ies at UTC.

IL