CUEF presentation
The Cuef is a common branch of Stendhal University, Grenoble 3
A very diversified public

Each year, during the summer and the academic year, the CUEF welcomes about 3,000 people, who have come to take either language or teacher training courses. The duration of their stay varies from four weeks to an entire academic year.
The majority of our students are university students, but two other categories of people come regularly as well: teachers who want to participate in a university program either for initial training or continuing education and working adults who simply need a good French knowledge in their work.

More than 100 nationalities meet in the CUEF halls, work together in the classrooms and mix at the student restaurants. People come to France from all around the world for its rich culture, but they soon find out that they are also enriched by the variety of different cultures present.

The CUEF also and mainly is an exceptionally varied educational team of teachers specialized in French as a foreign language.
Teams at the service of the students and trainees

The CUEF also is an active administrative team in charge of welcoming new students, helping them find appropriate accommodation, defining their study program, organising their daily life at the CUEF and in the city and coordinating cultural and sports events.

The entire staff, available to trainees and students at all times, has the responsibility and the pleasure to ensure the well-being of all its international members during their stay.

To conclude, the CUEF is the hub for thousands of encounters, exchanges, ties and friendships.
CUEF history
Click on the photos
to enlarge them.
 

More than one hundred years ago, a group of well-known people, key figures from the university, political and industrial fields in the Grenoble area, decided to create a centre for French studies, the “Comité du Patronage des étudiants étrangers” (CPEE).

In 1896, the first student to apply was a German. He was the first of many to apply.

Throughout the years, some then-anonymous students have gone on to become country leaders: people as Vigdis Finbogadottir, former President of Iceland, Richard von Weizacker, former President of Germany, and more recently, Masako Owada, Princess of Japan, who took courses at the CUEF in July and August 1983.
But all students, whether known or unknown, have contributed to the regular and continuous development of the CUEF.


Today, the CUEF has become a common branch of Stendhal University and together, the CUEF, the CPEE, and the university perpetuate their vocation for greeting new students and teaching French as a foreign language.