The second rentrée solennelle ceremony at the Jean Monnet Faculty (Law, Economics & Management)
Having been postponed for a year, the second edition of the rentrée solennelle* ceremony, organised by the Faculty of Law, Economics & Management at Université Paris-Saclay, finally took place on Friday 21 January.
In his opening speech for the ceremony, the Faculty’s Dean, Boris Bernabé, recalled how “the first rentrée solennelle was organised at the time of the creation of Université Paris-Saclay in 2020, which also marked the 50-year anniversary of the Jean Monnet Faculty joining the university, which was previously known as “Paris XI” and later “Paris-Sud”. The first rentrée solennelle took place exactly two months before what we now know as the First Lockdown.”
In front of an audience made up of the Faculty’s teaching staff, students who were at the top of their classes, and young doctors who have defended their theses in the past two academic years, the University’s President, Prof Sylvie Retailleau, congratulated everyone for having known how to “surpass themselves during a period which has made achieving success particularly challenging.”
These ceremonies give the Faculty the chance to establish a theme for the academic year, and assign a patron who is typically a key figure working in the chosen field. The Faculty’s Dean, Boris Bernabé highlighted that, “following the health crisis of the past two years, the choice of this year’s theme was clear: Health. And who better to talk to us about the challenges of global health than Professor Jacques Bittoun, former president of Université Paris-Sud, and who is honouring us as our patron this evening.” Following a presentation of his career by Prof Sandra Charreire Petit, the University’s former president, Emeritus Professor at the Paris-Saclay Faculty of Medicine and specialist in nuclear medicine, Prof Jacques Bittoun, gave his inaugural lecture on Global health and the increasingly important fight against obscurantism. To conclude, Jacques Bittoun emphasised that, “Universities have an important duty in the fight against obscurantism. While they are like other research institutions in that they use a methodology which has been tested by centuries of scientific progress, they also have the mission of teaching. Universities will of course lead this fight with its lecturers, but also with its students and in particular, its graduates…”
Later during the ceremony, 117 students who were either top of their classes, top laureates for the entry examination for the Regional Centre for the Professional Training of Lawyers (CRFPA) in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, and doctors from 2020 and 2021, were all rewarded for their achievements. Amidst the audience’s applause, the students were welcomed on stage by their academic heads and a figure from the legal or socio-economic world, who congratulated and awarded them much-deserved rewards.
Several key guests attended the ceremony, including Sardor Rustambaev, Ambassador of Uzbekistan to France, Xavier Desmaison, CEO and co-founder of the Antidox Group, Michel Guichard, President of the Hauts-de-Seine Bar Association, Pascal Fournier, President of the Versailles Bar Association, representing the elected President Marc Mandicas, and Nathalie Leandri, Vice-President of the Hauts-de-Seine Department Council.
You can download the speeches for the 2022 rentrée solennelle and the list of award winners here (document in French):
*Rentrée solennelle: literally translated as “Solemn Reassembly”, the ceremony is an annual event which celebrates the Faculty’s high-achieving students who are rewarded for the quality of the work by the Faculty. Participants wear full academic dress: scarlet red for law, economics and management, cherry red for medicine, amaranthine for the sciences, and purple for the President. The event is also the moment to review the past academic year and give an inaugural lecture on a current topic or a subject of interest to the Faculty’s community. These ceremonies take place in law faculties and courts in France.
Video by Les frères Michaud