With the political mood in the US and UK growing more introspective, French business schools are sensing an opportunity to attract more international students to their campuses at home and abroad.
随着美、英两国的政治气氛变得日益内向，法国各商学院嗅到了一丝吸引更多国际学员到其海内外校区学习的机遇。
In recent years the focus of French business schools has been on consolidation and mergers, such as those that created both Neoma and Kedge in 2013. Some have been more successful than others and the trend may be coming to an end. “I don’t think we will see many more mergers,” says Jean-Michel Blanquer, dean of Essec. “The mergers that made sense have been done.”
近年来，法国各商学院的重心一直放在整合与合并上，例如2013年诞生了NEOMA商学院和Kedge商学院的合并。有些合并很成功，有些则不然，这股趋势可能正在结束。“我认为我们将不会看到很多新的合并，”法国ESSEC高等商学院院长让-米歇尔?布朗凯(Jean-Michel Blanquer)说，“有意义的合并都已完成。”

This return to greater stability at home is one factor encouraging some French schools to look outward. There is also pressure from government. French higher education lags behind the world’s main providers of general transnational education — the US, UK and Australia — and a recent report by government-affiliated think-tank France Stratégie, highlighted an “urgent” need for a new approach.
国内格局进一步回归稳定，是激励一些法国商学院将眼光投向海外的因素之一。此外，还有来自政府的压力。法国高等教育落后于美国、英国、澳大利亚等世界主要通用跨国教育供给国，而隶属法国政府的智库France Stratégie最近发布的一份报告强调了采取一条新路径的“迫切”需要。
While French business schools are among the more active higher education institutions overseas, teaching some 3,000 students outside France, there is awareness that there is potential for growth. In order for a French school to gain accreditation from the ministry of national education for its academic awards, it must now demonstrate a clearly defined strategy for international expansion.
虽然法国商学院在海外已跻身诸多更具活力的高等教育机构之列，在法国之外向约3000名学生授课，但人们知道它们仍有增长潜力。要让本校颁发的学历获得国家教育部认证，任何一家法国商学院现在都必须拿出一份明晰的国际扩张战略。
But being international is not enough, says Bernard Belletante, director-general of EMLyon. “We’ve been sending students abroad for many years and internationalisation is not a problem thanks to the EU,” he says. “Now we have to move to globalisation.”
但仅实现国际化还不够，法国里昂商学院(EMLyon)院长贝尔纳?贝勒唐特(Bernard Belletante)表示。“多年来我们一直在送学生到海外学习，因为有欧盟(EU)存在，国际化不是问题，”他说，“现在，我们必须迈向全球化。”
Financial pressures are also an important driver pushing French schools to seek new markets. There are several categories of business school in France: those part of a public university (the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises network); privately-run business schools that operate like companies with shareholders; some that operate as non-profits under the status of etablissement d’enseignement supérieur privé d’intérêt général (private higher education institutions with a public interest); and the écoles consulaires, a final group that includes big schools such as HEC and ESCP Europe, which are overseen, in part, by the French Chambers of Commerce.
财务压力也是推动法国商学院寻找新市场的一个重要驱动力。法国有多个种类的商学院：公立大学下辖的商学院（Institut d’Administration des Entreprises网络）；像股份公司一样运营的私立商学院；以EESPIG（公益性私立高等教育机构）身份运营的非营利性商学院；以及最后一类工商会商学院(école consulaire)，包括巴黎高等商学院(HEC Paris)、ESCP欧洲商学院(ESCP Europe)等部分受法国商会(French Chambers of Commerce)监督的大型学院。
“Although each category has its specific challenges, all are faced with the significant decrease of public funding,” explains Frank Bournois, dean of ESCP Europe, referring to cuts in funding from the French Chambers of Commerce and the local apprenticeship tax. Also, while France offers attractive tax incentives to philanthropists, French business school foundations are still learning the art of attracting wealthy donors.
“尽管每一类都有自己具体的挑战，但它们都面临公共财政资金大幅下降的问题，”ESCP欧洲商学院院长弗朗克?布尔努瓦(Frank Bournois)解释道，他指的是来自法国商会及地方学徒税的资金的削减。此外，虽然法国为慈善家们提供有吸引力的税收激励政策，但法国商学院各基金会仍在学习如何才能吸引有钱的捐赠人。
French schools therefore spy new revenue opportunities abroad. “The domestic market is already mature, so growth lies in the recruitment of international students,” says Jean-Guy Bernard, the dean of EM Normandie.
于是，法国商学院发现了新的海外创收的机会。“国内市场早已饱和，因此，增长在于招收国际学生，”诺曼底管理学院(EM Normandie)院长让-居伊?贝尔纳(Jean-Guy Bernard)说。
For some, that recruitment strategy means opening campuses in different continents. The latest to open, at the end of September, is Shenzhen Audencia Business School (SABS), a joint venture between Audencia business school, based in Nantes, and Shenzhen University in southern China’s Guangdong province.
对一些商学院而言，这种招生策略意味着在各大洲开园办校。最新开办的是去年9月底揭牌的深圳南特商学院(SABS)，由法国南特高等商学院(Audencia Nantes Business School)与位于华南广东省的深圳大学合办。
Launching three programmes in 2017 — an MBA, a DBA and a masters — SABS aims to attract 500 students in three years. Audencia also plans to launch a campus in Latin America within three years, while an agreement with the Ivory Coast’s Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphou?t-Boigny was announced earlier this year.
深圳南特商学院2017年将推出工商管理硕士(MBA)、工商管理博士(DBA)及管理学硕士3项课程，计划3年内招收500名学生。法国南特高等商学院还计划3年内在拉美启动一处校区，而在2016年初，该校宣布已经与科特迪瓦的费利克斯?乌弗埃-博瓦尼国立综合理工学院(INPHB)达成协议。
In September, Paris-based Essec began teaching in Rabat, Morocco, where its new Africa-Atlantic campus opens next year, with the aim of attracting students from across west Africa, complementing its east Africa-Indian Ocean campus in Mauritius. “Our goal is to be multi-polar, present in the business hubs of each continent,” says Prof Blanquer, its dean.
2016年9月，总部位于巴黎的法国ESSEC高等商学院开始在摩洛哥首都拉巴特授课，该学院位于这里的非洲-大西洋新校区将在2017年投入使用，目的是吸引整个西非地区的学生，与设在毛里求斯的东非-印度洋校区形成互补。“我们的目标是实现多极化，在每个大洲的商业中心都拥有一席之地，”院长布朗凯教授说。
EMLyon, which already serves Africa with a campus in Casablanca and is stepping up its partnership with East China Normal University to create a joint school in Shanghai named Asia-Europe Business School, is now targeting South America, according to its dean.
据里昂商学院院长介绍，该学院早已通过设在卡萨布兰卡的一处校区为非洲提供教育服务，并且正加紧与华东师范大学合作在上海创建一所名为亚欧商学院(Asia-Europe Business School)的合办学院。目前，里昂商学院正在瞄准南美地区。
“I’m convinced that in 10 years the international accreditation bodies will be demanding evidence of the internationalisation of a school’s graduates, for example, 50 per cent of graduates who are not French,” predicts EMLyon’s Belletante. “That’s impossible if you are not going abroad.”
“我相信，国际认证机构10年内将要求学校展示毕业生国际化的证据——例如，非法国籍毕业生占50%，”里昂商学院院长贝勒唐特说，“如果不进军海外，这是不可能做到的。”
French schools must beware of a copy-and-paste approach, says Fran?ois Bonvalet, dean of Toulouse Business School, which now has international campuses in London, Barcelona and Casablanca. “We need to pull from the French savoir-faire,” says Prof Bonvalet, but applied work and teaching practices must be adapted to local norms. He also cautions that the cost of establishing campuses abroad can be detrimental to the home campus.
图卢兹商学院(TBS)院长弗朗索瓦?邦瓦莱(Fran?ois Bonvalet)表示，法国商学院必须谨防简单复制的模式。图卢兹商学院目前在伦敦、巴塞罗那和卡萨布兰卡设有国际校区。“我们需要汲取法式经验，”邦瓦莱教授说，但应用研究和教学实践必须适应当地标准。他还告诫，海外办校的花费可能对国内的校本部造成损害。
“It’s expensive to operate abroad especially in areas where tuition fees cannot be raised,” he explains. “As we want to have harmonisation within our programmes taught across multiple campuses, the expenses of one campus limits what we are able to do in France. So our business model must be well defined.”
“海外运营成本高昂，尤其是在无法提高学费的地区，”他解释说，“因为我们希望在多个校区所授课程项目之间保持协调，所以某处海外校区的开销会限制我们在法国能够做的事情。因此，我们的运营模式必须非常清晰。”
Other schools, such as HEC Paris, are stopping short of investing in new campuses abroad, choosing instead to partner with business schools around the world to offer joint and double degrees and student and faculty exchanges. Schools that perform well in global rankings can leverage the power of their international brand to attract more international students to their programmes in France, often using overseas offices and fairs.
巴黎高等商学院等其他学院已不再投资新建海外校区，而是选择与世界各地的商学院合作，提供联合学位、双学位课程以及师生交换项目。全球排名中靠前的商学院，能够利用国际品牌的影响力吸引更多国际学生参加它们在法国的项目——它们经常利用海外办事处和博览会。
Whatever their strategy, globalisation is causing many schools to reflect on their French identity, consider how best to market the strengths that have cachet abroad and discard French specifics that hold them back.
无论采取什么策略，全球化正促使许多商学院反思自己的法国身份，思考如何最大限度利用它们在海外拥有声望的优势，摒弃阻碍它们的法式特色。
For example, the traditional French system of classes préparatoires (preparatory classes), which organises the selection and preparation of students for competitive exams into the leading business schools, is not accessible to international students. All classes are in French, with a strong emphasis on maths and French humanities or liberal arts.
比如，传统的法国预科班制度（为希望通过竞争性考试进入一流商学院的学生组织选拔和备考）并不接受国际学生。所有预科班都设在法国，而且高度重视数学和法国人文学科。
But a growing number of students are now entering bachelor degree programmes that have been introduced alongside the classes préparatoires. “It’s drastically changing the game,” says ESCP’s Prof Bournois. “This new track is becoming more attractive to non-French students.”
但如今，越来越多的学生正进入与预科班一同被引入的学士学位课程学习。“这彻底改变了游戏规则，”布尔努瓦教授说，“这一新路径正变得对非法国籍学员越来越有吸引力。”
According to Eloic Peyrache, associate dean of HEC, many French business schools tend to be more multi-disciplinary than their US or British counterparts and offer more academic content and greater contact time with faculty.
巴黎高等商学院副院长埃卢瓦克?佩拉什(Eloic Peyrache)表示，与美、英两国的商学院相比，很多法国商学院往往更侧重多学科教育，提供更多学业内容，学员与教员交流的时间也更多。
Prof Peyrache thinks French schools also excel in the personal development of students. “We work on three dimensions at HEC. Know yourself, know the market and match yourself with the market,” he says. “French business schools spend more on the know yourself. We tend to have slightly longer programmes, which leaves more time for broadening horizons and opportunities to learn. We give students longer to ask questions and find answers.”
佩拉什教授认为，在学员个人发展方面，法国商学院的表现也很出色。“在巴黎高等商学院，我们致力于3个维度。了解自己、了解市场，让自己与市场相匹配，”他说，“法国各商学院花更多时间让学员了解自己。我们的课程往往时间稍长，可以给学员留出更多开拓视野的时间、更多学习的机会。我们给学员更多提出问题和寻找答案的时间。”