Milestones and Accomplishments

As The American University of Paris moves beyond its 60th-anniversary celebrations and looks toward the future, the Board of Trustees is looking back on some of the major milestones and accomplishments that have characterized the University’s recent history. AUP is now the premier American international university in Europe. The University’s re-founding period, which coincided with the 13-year tenure of President Celeste M. Schenck, has been pivotal in establishing AUP in thi­­s position.

President Celeste M. Schenck’s time in office ensured stability and leadership through sometimes turbulent circumstances, including the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Leadership Team

President Schenck was instrumental in assembling AUP’s Leadership Team of Vice Presidents, who specialize in turning challenges into opportunities. Along with the President and the Board of Trustees, the Leadership Team guides the AUP community toward achieving its mission, while managing the University’s administrative functions.

Strategic vision

Thanks to the successful implementation of three successive strategic plans under President Schenck’s leadership, new generations of students can continue to receive the University’s signature brand of global liberal arts education.

AUP Ascending

The University’s first-ever capital campaign, AUP Ascending, successfully raised more than €19 million between 2015 and 2020 for AUP’s campus, curriculum and community. The resulting campus-wide renovations and the transformation of student services would not have been possible were it not for the financial support of generous alumni and trustee donors and the spirit and resilience of President Schenck.

Navigating Covid-19

The challenges of the pandemic were met with flexibility and innovation as the Leadership Team and Board of Trustees responded to the worldwide health crisis by prioritizing above all a safe and healthy environment for students, faculty and staff. They also ensured financial stability, closing out the 2019–20 academic year with a surplus and holding steady in the 2020–21 academic year. Recruitment numbers have now returned to pre-pandemic levels.

The last 13 years have been characterized by AUP’s rising profile. The University is today recognized as a global model for an American international institution, and our recruitment efforts and academic research are attracting an ever-wider audience.

Research Centers

AUP’s five research centers, supported by donor generosity, are founded on the central values of the University’s global community. Their respected scholarly publications, engaging events and student–faculty collaborations have cemented AUP’s academic reputation.

Partnerships

Thanks to a portfolio of strategic partnerships with institutions around the world, including Ivy League universities, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs, more students are able to attend AUP through transfer or Study Abroad programs. Partnerships also advance academic inquiry through study trips and internships. In line with AUP’s aim of fostering global citizenship and offering interdisciplinary education, these connections open doors for students to excel in international careers.

International academic conferences

AUP’s departments and research centers regularly attract both leading and emerging academics from around the world for scholarly convocation in Paris and online.

The Presidential Lecture Series 2021–22

Taking the theme of “Technology and the Human Future,” this lecture series encouraged global practitioners to engage with theory and practice on the subject of the ethical use of digital technologies. AUP faculty members and external scholars presented research into how data science and AI can be ethically deployed in areas as diverse as gendered violence and democratic practice.

AUP’s Leadership Team has developed a clear conception of the kind of student the University exists to educate, the global explorer, and it has used this model to overhaul the University’s recruitment strategy, weathering the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic without significant long-term financial impact.

The global explorer

As part of the first of three strategic plans over the last 13 years, the University’s Leadership Team worked to define the kind of globally minded student AUP exists as an institution to educate, thereby coining the term “global explorer.” Relentlessly curious and eager to learn, global explorers are driven by a desire to engage directly with the international community – whether they arrive at AUP having traveled the world or having never owned a passport.

Demographic diversity

AUP’s demographic diversity remains one of its greatest assets. In the 2021–22 academic year, with 883 undergraduates and 139 graduates on campus, the student body represented 97 nationalities and spoke 60 languages and dialects.

Post-pandemic recovery

Following a dip in registrations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Spring 2022 semester saw AUP’s incoming cohort nearly double compared to the previous year, once again reaching pre-pandemic levels.

between 2021-2022

AUP continues to attract world-leading scholars, researchers, artists and writers to join its international faculty. The diversity of scholarship at AUP combined with a deep commitment to the global liberal arts creates a rigorous academic environment. The University’s Paris location provides the community access to renowned archives, institutions and experts.

Publications and awards

The University’s yearly Faculty Achievement Brochure catalogues the impressive academic output of AUP professors and researchers, highlighting their commitment to furthering the liberal arts. In the 2021–22 academic year, faculty members collectively published 15 books and over 160 articles and gave over 135 presentations at conferences across the world.

A deep commitment to teaching and mentoring

AUP’s student-centered academic curriculum places deep emphasis on student–faculty collaboration and mentorship. The benefits of this are evident in faculty members’ consistently high student evaluation scores: in the 2021–22 academic year, 91% of students agreed that their courses stimulated their thinking and 88% agreed that professors created an environment conducive to learning.

Professors of Promise

Thanks to the generosity of alumni, friends and trustees, the AUP community is able to recognize, through its Professor of Promise grants, committed faculty members whose research and scholarship further the University’s reputation in the global academic community.

The University has come a long way from its founding years when classes were held in borrowed rooms in the American Church in Paris. Over the last decade, AUP’s urban, student-centered campus has been fully renovated thanks to the generous support of donors, cementing the University’s position in the 7th arrondissement. Every building has been redesigned around the needs of global explorers.

Monttessuy Center for the Arts

In October 2021, the University’s longest-held building was reopened as a new home for the Department of Art History and Fine Arts. Today, Monttessuy contains classrooms, art studios, student exhibition spaces and a multipurpose auditorium named for AUP parent, former trustee and star of the silver screen Olivia de Havilland. Monttessuy will also host a virtual film institute, which will focus on digital filmmaking and barriers of culture, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, race, politics and language.

Combes Student Life Center

Initially renovated in 2014 to unite student life services in one place, this building will soon include two new purpose-built spaces – a fully soundproof music room and a health and wellness area.

Quai d’Orsay Learning Commons

Inaugurated in 2019, AUP’s flagship building is located on the historic Quai d’Orsay and connects to the existing Combes Student Life Center via a glass atrium. This combined complex brings together student life and learning services under one roof, including the AUP Library, ACE Center and the beloved AMEX Café.

Housing

AUP has recently established a new housing program, bringing first-year students into university administered accommodations located in multiunit buildings within a 40-minute radius of campus. These housing options include real estate in prime locations such as on the Avenue des Champs Élysées.

One of the core tenets of AUP’s mission is to provide an academically rigorous education, something evident in the rising GPA of incoming students. The curriculum’s emphasis on combining theory and practice through experiential learning opportunities and co-curricular initiatives allows global explorers to construct their own pathways through higher education and into international careers.

Curricular innovation

AUP has spent 60 years shaping its global liberal arts education into one that is career-enabling, academically rigorous, student-centered and transformative for students. The 2020–23 strategic plan, entitled Navigating 21st-Century Pathways, combines the best of liberal arts teaching in the humanities, arts and sciences with experiential learning opportunities and practical applications. The curriculum encourages students to approach their intellectual interests in parallel with their sense of purpose.

Paris as a classroom

AUP’s location in the center of Paris allows for the city’s many museums, monuments, cultural centers and institutions to become vital aspects of the pedagogic process. Art historians find art and architecture out on the street as much as in museums. Communications majors volunteer with social justice organizations, engaging directly with Parisian communities. Management students take internships at multinational companies as well as innovative startups.

Cultural Program

AUP’s 60-year-long tradition of taking students on enriching cultural excursions and academically focused study trips in Paris and around the world permits students more than ever to develop a vital range of competences, knowledge and self-confidence while understanding the practical applications of their work. Practicums take place in, among other places, India, Senegal and Iceland.

AUP’s seven innovative master’s programs provide an international platform for graduate students to uncover new academic and career opportunities and gain crucial intellectual and professional skills.

RNCP Certification

AUP’s MA in Global Communications has RNCP certification, which is the central reference framework for all diplomas, qualifications and titles recognized by the French state. This professional certification indicates that graduates attaining the associated qualification are able to demonstrate competency of the skills and knowledge necessary to exercise an activity corresponding to a professional field: in this case, “Director/Directrice de la Communications/de Marketing International.”

New master’s programs

AUP has launched two new master’s programs in 2021 and 2022 respectively:

Students at AUP benefit from a supportive learning environment. The AUP Ascending strategic plan revamped, harmonized and mobilized all the services global explorers need to augment their learning experience. These services include advising, peer tutoring, academic resources, internships, study trips, mentored research, skills-based pedagogies, leadership training, co-curricular activities and career-development services.

AUP is committed to ensuring that every student who desires and deserves its signature brand of global liberal arts education can access it. Scholarship programs nurture students, who go on to become responsible actors and empowered leaders in their communities. Student clubs offer a variety of leadership opportunities and integrate into the academic curriculum, encouraging students to think about their time at AUP holistically.

Grants and scholarships

AUP awards over €4.5 million annually in financial aid to students of all nationalities, with the aim of promoting economic diversity among an already culturally diverse student body. Around 50% of students at AUP receive some form of financial aid.

The Presidential Scholarship Program

Supported by the University’s first-ever endowment, these scholarships cover 100% of tuition and are awarded to high-achieving students in financial need, who are expected to become community leaders and mentors among their peers. 

For-credit leadership opportunities

Student clubs and organizations at AUP offer a range of leadership positions that tie into the academic curriculum. Whether working as an editor for AUP Student Media or representing peers as a member of the Student Government Association, students have the chance to link their extracurricular pursuits to their studies.

Responding to Covid-19

When adapting to the ever-changing sanitary protocols of the Covid-19 pandemic, student leaders demonstrated exceptional perseverance and creativity in promoting student participation outside the classroom. AUP Engage, an online platform dedicated to co-curricular activities, registered a boost in activity during the pandemic, with 33 student clubs and a total of 589 (mostly remote) events.