President of Campus Condorcet in France Visits NCKU to Discuss Academic Freedom and Support Programs-國立成功大學永續發展SDGs

On September 1, 2025, Pierre-Paul Zalio, President of the Condorcet Paris-Aubervilliers Campus (also known as Campus Condorcet), and Pascale Laborier, Head of Campus Condorcet’s Mission Université en Exil (UXIL), visited National Cheng Kung University (NCKU). They were welcomed by NCKU Executive Vice President Yung-Chun Lee and university representatives. The meeting focused on potential collaborations in academic freedom and democracy, university campus development, humanities and social sciences seminars, student exchanges, and library resource sharing.


Executive Vice President Lee expressed his gratitude to President Zalio for visiting in person and praised Campus Condorcet’s outstanding achievements in the humanities and social sciences. He emphasized that academic freedom and democracy are the foundation of knowledge pursuit and commended the University in Exile mission for supporting and integrating international scholars under persecution. Executive Vice President Lee also looked forward to creating opportunities for collaboration between the two universities in humanities and social sciences faculties, as well as in library collection exchanges.


President Zalio explained that Campus Condorcet became a national-level project in 2009. The French government aims to strengthen the research influence of French universities by establishing a trans-suburban campus (Campus transperipherique). The campus comprises 11 higher education institutions in the humanities and social sciences, including the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), with a total of 116 research centers and over 900 organized scientific activities annually. Since 2024, Campus Condorcet has launched the University in Exile mission, welcoming scholars from countries such as Pakistan and Sudan, enabling persecuted scholars to continue scientific exchange and pursue research freely.


NCKU Executive Vice President for International Affairs Sun-Yuan Hsieh introduced NCKU and highlighted its key role in southern Taiwan in medical alliances and research network linkages. He expressed the hope that in the future, students and scholars would be encouraged to take part in academic seminars, humanities and social science research, and library exchange programs at Campus Condorcet. NCKU representatives at the meeting included Executive Vice President Yung-Chun Lee, Executive Vice President for International Affairs Sun-Yuan Hsieh, Head of International Relations Tsung-lin Liu, Deputy Head Ya-Tsui Hsieh, and Officer Ting-Hui Wu.


Campus Condorcet in France originated from a humanities and social sciences research campus initiative jointly promoted by the EHESS and the EPHE in Aubervilliers, a northern suburb of Paris. The project was designed to meet the 21st-century demands for education, science, and digital knowledge. Spanning from Paris’s 18th arrondissement to the northern suburbs, the campus is Europe’s largest humanities and social sciences research hub. Since June 2022, Dr. Pierre-Paul Zalio has served as the President of Campus Condorcet.