This is the difficult question which international students are currently asking themselves. Ever conscious of this, Excelia is implementing innovative solutions in conjunction with the Directors of its Schools, Heads of Programme and all admin personnel.
Will the borders be reopened? Will I have time to get my visa? Will I find a flight? There are so many uncertainties confronting our international students, who make up 20% of our new intake.
The Group's policy is therefore to favour hybrid teaching for the new academic year (combining face-to-face lessons with e-learning) since our distinguishing feature is the "experiential" element, which necessitates interaction and contact on campus. So, the start of the new academic year will indeed take place on campus between the end of August and the end of September. Excelia prides itself on being highly attentive to its students' needs and has developed a flexible solution in response to their concerns. Maxime Gambini, Marketing & Sales Director, outlines the different possible arrangements: "Students will arrive when they can, we will welcome them as and when they turn up, but in the meantime, we have developed online lessons. Alternatively, they may prefer to delay the start of their studies until January 2021, which is a possibility for the Tours and Paris study locations and for the Bachelor and MSc programmes. Or they may simply decide to defer their studies for one year."
In addition, Semester 1 of programmes such as the Bachelor First Year and the Business Foundation Programme are now available 100% online, with discounted tuition fees (cf. SCHOOL article). Excelia has the necessary savoir-faire and considerable experience in distance learning, and the fact that the School is located in the "green zone" explains its stable student recruitment, even though "for the first time, it is the French market that is leading the numbers with excellent results for the Master in Management programme", explains Maxime Gambini.
Representatives from our overseas offices continue to be a valuable source of recruitment, with regular live events on social networks, and the possibility of scheduling appointments via a new online tool. In addition, Excelia will soon be launching an interactive 360° virtual tour of the campus, an online Escape Game to discover the different student areas of La Rochelle, and course modules in English and French for students to experience Excelia's pedagogical approach.
