Government moves to end Toulouse shutdown

After weeks of protests that have shut down most of Toulouse 2 University, the government dissolved the university’s main boards and unseated its president.

Research minister Frédérique Vidal announced, in a statement released on 20 March, that Richard Laganier, a former president of the University of French Guiana, had been appointed as the university’s temporary administrator.

Vidal said that the protests, which have been going on for months, had produced a “serious and long-lasting” impact on the university that the management boards had been unable to stem. Laganier will oversee a transition period before fresh board elections are held in the next three months.