Contenu du sommaire

Grenoble, university town in a mountain environment. The University of Grenoble, which, though it has a long history, has only really developed in recent years, for a long time maintained close ties with industry before becoming more independent and developing links with its urban and alpine environment. From the early 1980s, the University found itself unable to meet the new demands placed upon it. The need to improve facilities became particularly felt as technical, economic and scientific changes led to the demand for new branches. The locating of university activities throughout the Grenoble urban area was chosen as a means of dynamising and harmonising the links between the city and the university and appears to confirm the role of the university as a force in structuring urbanisation as well as the image that others have of Grenoble, which in turn contributes to the myth of today's city being founded on the university. Today, the University and its research activities occupy a central position in the city, their spatial expression in the urban area being defined in terms of the new roles of local authorities and university institutions.

Research and the university in the French Alps area. An analysis of ideas put forward by certain researchers was conducted with a view to assessing how activities linked to research and higher education could contribute to spatial organisation in the French Alps area. A further related aim was to examine the role of the mountain environment in scientific development in the region. In fact, a certain discrepancy is revealed between the opinions of development planners responsible for the mountain areas and the research scientists for whom the mountain environment plays only a secondary role.

The slow maturing of the University of Savoie. After describing the present situation at the Université de Savoie, with its diffe- rent constituent parts and geographic locations, the author shows that this is the result of a long period of maturation which began at the time of the Piedmont-Sardinia Kingdom. The role of the university teaching staff was predominant during its period of growth, before 1970. Up to that time, the university was largely moulded by those who initiated its development. After 1980, however, the growth in student numbers and pressure from local authorities became increasingly important influences on the development of the university. The Université de Savoie has now developed a real personality, with the Chambery campus being more oriented towards public services and the site in Annecy more oriented towards socio-economic studies. The university now constitutes a pole for regional development, is increasingly part of the Savoie environment and, with respect to certain of its orientations, is becoming more of a mountain university.

The dynamics of the university in a mountain environment : reflections on the example of Pau, a university in the piedmont area of the Pyrenees. Within the context of the relationships that exist in mountain areas between universities and their environment, this article looks at the links between university and politico-administrative areas rather than those between the university and the mountain environment itself. The objectives which were fixed at the university have led to a break with the regional environment. Only the recent renewal of cooperative agreements between research workers and local actors may open up the prospects of a strenghtening of ties between rese- rach and the local milieu.