The departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie, the fruit of the last great province integrated into France in 1860, are the only ones to have inherited the reference to a name from the Ancien Régime. The relationship to the territory is all the stronger and more singular for its eponymous university.
A territory exists only through its actors, their representation of the world, the actions they take as a result and the individual and collective identity that emerges from them. The territory is a conscious space, a social construction, which takes into account economic and demographic dynamics, and which can extend beyond national borders, as is the case for Savoie Mont Blanc.
A non-metropolitan institution which, although largely under-resourced, has developed remarkably well thanks to the redoubled efforts of its staff and the support of local authorities,Université Savoie Mont Blanc has endeavoured to fulfil the missions defined by Article L123-3 of the Education Code, modified by the law of 23 July 2013:
- The academics initial and ongoing throughout life.
- The research scientific and technological , the dissemination and promotion of its results in the service of society.
- Guidance, social promotion and professional integration.
- The dissemination of humanist culture, in particular through the development of the human and social sciences and of scientific, technical and industrial culture.
- Participation in the construction of the European Higher Education Area and the research.
- International cooperation.
In this way, it participates in the national university ecosystem, which needs diversity in order to renew itself permanently. What matters is not the size of an institution - which hosts as many students as MIT and only asks to participate from a comparable environment - but its project, its capacity to innovate and succeed. Non-metropolitan universities in peripheral locations, in synergy with their territory, which in the Pays de Savoie has metropolitan characteristics, have demonstrated their abilities both in terms of the offer of academics and research and in terms of development. They are the guarantors of a regional planning that avoids certain detrimental effects of metropolisation, and of equal opportunities for students by facilitating access to higher education for as many people as possible. The interactions between these institutions and their socio-economic environment have produced qualifications, growth and employment. They have generated cultural development in every sense of the word, shared development for the benefit of families and especially young people.