International Week 2026: When International Openness Becomes an Immersive Academic Experience

Two perspectives for a shared international ambition

Organised each year, the International Week at Clermont School of Business brings together international faculty and practitioners to address the major contemporary challenges of management. Far more than a simple academic highlight, it is an immersive experience at the heart of current economic, geopolitical, and societal transformations.

Designed for the Master in Management (PGE) students, International Week aims to develop key competencies (global analysis, intercultural openness, adaptability, etc.) while exposing them to a variety of international perspectives. The 2026 edition, centred on the theme “On the Border,” invites participants to reflect on the boundaries, transitions, and disruptions currently reshaping managerial practices.

In this joint interview, Audrey Esteves, Head of International Relations, and Hulya Oztel, Head of Post-Graduate Studies, discuss the concrete benefits of International Week for students, the dynamic academic partnerships it fosters, and the ambitions driving Clermont School of Business’s long-term international strategy.

International Week is a major highlight for Clermont SB’s international outlook. How has the event evolved over the years, and why is it strategic for the School?

Audrey Esteves:

International Week is now a structuring component of Clermont School of Business’s international strategy.

Over its 21 editions, it has evolved into a strategic “internationalisation at home” initiative, fully integrated into the School’s pedagogical and institutional priorities.

It now follows a clear objective: to offer demanding international exposure to students whose mobility opportunities may be limited, while sustainably strengthening our links with international academic partners through long-term cooperation and co-construction.

Concretely, what does this International Week bring to Grande École Programme students, particularly in terms of skills, cultural openness, and understanding of global management issues?

Hulya Oztel:

For our final-year Grande École Programme students on work-study tracks, International Week is a high-impact academic and intercultural experience. They operate in a highly professional environment but face strong constraints regarding international mobility. International Week allows them to experience, on campus, an intensive international immersion in English, in contact with faculty members and practitioners from diverse cultural and economic contexts.

This enables them to develop key skills:

• the ability to work in English within a demanding academic framework,
• a more global and comparative understanding of managerial challenges,
• essential intercultural skills for international or transnational careers.

The pedagogy deliberately relies on highly applied approaches—case studies, simulations, and projects—to connect their professional experiences with the major transformations in global management.

“On the Border” evokes boundaries, transitions, and disruptions. Why did this theme seem particularly relevant in today’s economic, geopolitical, and managerial context?

Hulya Oztel:

“On the Border” directly echoes the realities of today’s management landscape.

The theme On the Border: Reimagining Management Across Transitions, Boundaries and Disruptions quickly emerged as an obvious choice. Today, boundaries are no longer solely geographical: they are economic, digital, cultural, institutional, and symbolic. Managers operate in environments shaped by geopolitical disruptions, ecological transitions, rapid technological transformations, and profound shifts in the world of work.

This theme allows these issues to be addressed in a transversal way—across finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, HR, and strategy—while providing students with concrete analytical frameworks to understand and act within unstable and hybrid contexts.

This week relies heavily on the involvement of international faculty and practitioners. How does International Week help strengthen sustainable academic ties between Clermont SB and its partners worldwide?

Audrey Esteves:

International Week is a structuring lever within Clermont School of Business’s international partnership policy.

Invited faculty are selected strategically, primarily from our partner universities or academic networks with which the School maintains ongoing relationships. This selection process aims both to strengthen loyalty among key partners and to identify new high-potential collaborations.

Beyond the teaching delivered, International Week is designed as a key moment for academic dialogue, encouraging the emergence of joint projects: student and faculty mobility, joint programmes, research initiatives, or shared pedagogical schemes.

It therefore provides a privileged framework for initiating and consolidating academic cooperation projects.

Beyond the 2026 edition, what ambitions do you have for the future of this event and, more broadly, for the School’s international strategy?

Hulya Oztel and Audrey Esteves:

Our ambition is to consolidate International Week as a cornerstone of Clermont School of Business’s international strategy, at the intersection of teaching, research, and academic partnerships. Beyond the 2026 edition, the goal is to establish International Week as a lasting pillar of Clermont SB’s internationalisation by further strengthening:

1. the academic quality of the modules offered,
2. the geographical and disciplinary diversity of contributors,
3. the articulation between teaching, research, and international partnerships.

More broadly, this dynamic is part of a long-term vision: to train responsible managers capable of thinking and acting “beyond borders” in a world of constant transition. International Week is both a pedagogical laboratory and a powerful symbol of this ambition.