Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak announced emergency aid measures on Friday, including an envelope of three million euros, in a letter to students of architecture schools, who have been protesting their precariousness since September. . This “immediate aid of three million euros will be devoted to student life, in particular to educational projects whose costs can represent a significant burden and create inequalities between students”, writes the minister, after having conducted a series of consultations with their representatives, the heads of these schools and the trade unions.
From the start of the next school year, “the salaries of teacher-researchers and doctoral students in architecture will be aligned with those of their university counterparts”, she also announced in this letter consulted by AFP. “Five new teacher-researcher positions” will also be “created this year” to cope with the workload of school staff, as well as “10 additional administrative jobs”. “Counting the 10 positions created last year, there are therefore a total of 25 new jobs in 2022 and 2023, the equivalent of at least one position per school to meet urgent needs and allow everyone to practice their profession more serenely,” she underlines.
Due to a lack of staff, the return to school in January had notably been postponed by a week at Ensa (National School of Architecture) in Normandy, according to the ministry. Regarding the renovation of the premises, the next works will be “prioritized”, according to the minister, in order to “resolve the most urgent situations as in Grenoble, to create a catering offer as in Clermont-Ferrand, or to find relocation solutions as for Paris-La Villette”.
“Compulsory training” for all staff, teachers and administrators, will also be put in place from the start of the next school year to fight against all violence and harassment of a sexual and sexist nature in schools. Like all scholarship holders, architecture students will also benefit from “at least 37 additional euros per month from the start of the 2023 school year”, and “nearly 700 students will move to a higher scholarship level”.