Home>Sciences Po Inaugurates a New Office in Dakar
07.11.2024
Sciences Po Inaugurates a New Office in Dakar
For over fifteen years, Sciences Po has placed Africa at the heart of its international strategy, strengthening its focus and expanding partnerships across the continent. This commitment is now taking practical form with the opening of a new office in Dakar, which will serve as a strategic hub for academic collaboration and further enhance our institution’s presence and influence in Africa.
As a leading French and European university, Sciences Po is forging close links with African higher education institutions. We are, in fact, the French university that sends the highest number of students to Africa each year, giving our students the opportunity to immerse themselves in local dynamics within a vibrant academic environment.
These close links are reflected in 34 partnerships with African universities, including the University of Cape Town in South Africa, Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) in Senegal, Ashesi University in Ghana and Strathmore University in Kenya.
These partnerships include student exchange programmes and teaching and research staff exchanges in eleven countries, contributing to a reciprocal enrichment of approaches and knowledge. In addition, through our collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, Sciences Po is the only university in continental Europe to offer a dedicated support programme for African students, underscoring our determination to make both geographical and social inclusiveness central to our mission.
Sciences Po's African partner universities also include three of the five African institutions active in the U7+ alliance: UCAD in Senegal, UM6P in Morocco and INPHB in Côte d'Ivoire. As part of this global alliance, we are co-organising workshops on cross-disciplinary themes such as gender equality, inclusiveness and educational innovation. This dynamic is the expression of a shared ambition: to make higher education a lever for social transformation on the African continent.
Our office in Dakar, located within the Université Rose Dieng France-Sénégal, will serve to bolster these exchanges and make sub-Saharan Africa more accessible to our internationally mobile students. This new presence will support and promote the scholarship programme in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and, crucially, strengthen our network of local partnerships dedicated to the inclusion of refugees and displaced persons across the continent.
« The inauguration of our office in Dakar marks a significant milestone in the long history of cooperation between Sciences Po and its African partners. We look forward to welcoming all those who share our vision of an African continent at the heart of global intellectual and academic exchanges. »
Jeremy Perelman
Director of International Affairs at Sciences Po
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In 2018, with the support of the Mastercard Foundation, Sciences Po became the first French university to open a permanent office in English-speaking Africa, located in Nairobi, to strengthen its dynamic collaboration with the region’s leading universities. At the same time, it expanded its partnerships in Francophone West Africa, notably with major public universities in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo.
The opening of a new office in Dakar, in partnership with the Université Rose Dieng France-Sénégal and with the support of the Mastercard Foundation, demonstrates Sciences Po's determination to continue to promote its offer throughout the continent and to broaden its partnerships with African universities beyond the student exchanges that have long formed the basis of its policy.
The mission of the Dakar and Nairobi offices is to connect Sciences Po's future and past communities in Africa, by actively promoting the range of courses on offer and coordinating alumni networks. In particular, these offices support the professional integration of alumni of the Mastercard Foundation scholarship programme and play an active role in the inclusion strategy for young people who are furthest from higher education.
Sciences Po aims to foster partnerships in research, faculty and doctoral mobility, enriching the breadth of academic perspectives and expertise within the institution. The opening of the Dakar office will enable the forging and strengthening of close ties between Sciences Po and its partners in Africa, facilitating best practice exchanges, and furthering Sciences Po’s integration into a continent-wide network of prestigious institutions across Africa.
The Mastercard Foundation has renewed and strengthened its commitment together with Sciences Po, its only partner university in continental Europe since 2017, as part of a very ambitious partnership.
The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program seeks to create pathways to excellent education for young people from the African continent.
Over the next 10 years, Sciences Po and the Mastercard Foundation are committed to supporting, training, and guiding 1,450 African students and young professionals facing significant barriers—particularly financial—in accessing higher education and achieving successful professional transitions. These individuals are distinguished by their academic excellence, leadership potential, and commitment to creating meaningful change on the African continent.
The Université Rose Dieng France-Sénégal (URDFS, formerly the Campus Franco-Sénégalais) was established through a collaborative initiative between the French and Senegalese governments to develop a higher education, research and innovation project aimed at improving the employability of young people.
The opening of a Sciences Po office in Dakar, located within the URDFS, marks the culmination of the framework cooperation agreement signed between the two universities in 2022. This partnership brings together the strengths of both institutions to further the URDFS's development strategy, offering programmes leading to both Senegalese and French degrees that are tailored to meet the socio-economic needs of Senegal and, more broadly, French-speaking Africa.
The Africa Programme brings together all Africa-related initiatives at Sciences Po. It is an interdisciplinary structure that spans the various research centres, departments, schools, campuses and faculties, creating a unique interface between education and research.
Its primary mission is to promote, coordinate and lead Sciences Po's scientific, educational and partnership activities related to the African continent.
It also provides an unprecedented forum for dialogue between researchers, artists, policymakers and civil society actors, offering a space for sharing perspectives on Africa and the world.
In 2024, Sciences Po was the French university that sent the most students to spend part of their studies in Africa and one of the European universities with the greatest number of active university partnerships on the continent. The institution also welcomed nearly 700 students of 46 African nationalities into its student community.
Sciences Po also offers Executive programmes tailored specifically for leaders, executives, and managers in the private and public sectors across Africa. Additionally, it offers an Africa minor on the Reims campus, which each year provides around a hundred students with bilingual, multidisciplinary training in the social sciences and humanities, with a strong focus on the African continent and its challenges.
Finally, the Sciences Po Alumni network is very active, with approximately 1,000 Sciences Po graduates spread throughout the continent.
