During the lockdown period, IESA continues to train and support its students.
On the evening of Thursday, March 12, the public authorities announced that, from the following week, universities and schools would no longer be able to host students on their premises. Immediately afterward, the lockdown was declared. For obvious health precautions, we decided that, from Monday evening, all IESA arts&culture teams would work from home. Our first reaction was indeed to ensure everyone’s safety: our students, our instructors, our teams. The watchword for everyone was to comply in every respect with the health instructions issued by the competent authorities.
Nevertheless, the school has not closed its doors, and thanks to the work and commitment of the academic teams and the instructors, but also thanks to the remarkable motivation of our students, classes continued, from Monday, March 16, to be delivered online on the BlackBoard Collaborate application. IESA arts&culture particularly thanks the technical teams of Galileo Global Education Group, to which it belongs, who made it possible to ensure this complete migration of our programs from in-person to remote and thus to fall behind on none of the proposed pathways. Assessments could also be put in place by replacing all the exams scheduled in the classroom with assignments to be written at home. Oral exams continue to be conducted via the online platform.
While classes are being delivered and have continued for four weeks now, IESA’s other departments are also hard at work. In connection with companies and institutions in the cultural sector, some of which are unfortunately hit very hard by this situation, the professionalization department continues to support students and companies. While some internships have been postponed, many have continued remotely and we are still signing agreements today for new professional placements. We warmly thank all the professionals who continue to support us by hosting students in this complex period and thus help enrich our students' training.
Obviously, the active pedagogy of our programs, which involves carrying out group and personal projects, remains. Even if the dates and places where these projects can be held are uncertain today, we want to see them carried out out of respect for the work put in by the students and their professors. As these projects are, for some classes, essential for students to validate their cycle, the academic teams and the faculty are considering other ways of handling them to allow validation should they not be able to take place within the required time. The decision will be made definitively before the end of April so that students can complete the required work calmly. The school’s stated line is indeed that no student should be penalized in the validation of their cycle by the current situation. Exceptional arrangements may therefore be made, particularly for final-year Bachelor students who wish to enter master’s programs next year so that they have all their results before the end of July.
During this period, we are also paying particular attention to all of our international students who are going through the lockdown in the Paris region far from their families or in their home country, which they chose to return to while they still could. For them too, solutions will be found so that validation can take place in the best possible way while respecting the academic requirements that allow our titles to be recognized.
Finally, IESA arts&culture continues to welcome those who would like to enroll in its programs next year. Virtual Open Days have been set up while waiting to be able to welcome our students again on our Campus. Appointments by phone, Skype or Blackboard are organized with applicants. School life continues as best it can in the situation we are facing.
Like everyone, we depend on the decisions that are made as the situation evolves. We provide the necessary responses based on this information by holding to a simple line based on two principles that seem obvious to us: to participate fully in the effort asked for the good of all and to ensure our students have the means to validate their year of training under the best possible conditions.
Personally, I wish everyone to get through this moment as well as possible and send my warmest thoughts to all those affected by this epidemic and its effects. I continue to believe, as I told our students, that in this period, questioning the world through works of art and cultural productions is essential. That is why I asked everyone who makes IESA arts&culture live - teams, instructors, students, friends, etc. - to take part in a series of videos entitled Les coups de cœur de l’IESA, un patrimoine pour tous (IESA’s Favorites, a Heritage for All). By sharing what makes us live and think, we will be able to enrich ourselves and make this time a crucible for our future projects.
Culture is not just entertainment; it carries the vision of the world we want to build. Our students' projects may be delayed, but I am certain that they are maturing and being enriched by what they are living through today.
The dynamic of IESA arts&culture draws its raison d’être from this richness.
Boris Grebille
