A new study centre in Marseille for the Primary Education Bachelor’s degree
It is now official: through its Department of Education Sciences, UCLy has established a new study centre in Marseille. The Primary Education Bachelor’s degree, offered in partnership with Université Lumière Lyon 2, is now available in Lyon, Annecy and Marseille. In Marseille, classes are held at ISFEC Saint-Cassien, in the city’s 7th arrondissement.
Created following the 2025 reform of teacher education in France, this Bachelor’s degree enables students who wish to become primary school teachers to prepare for the national competitive examination after three years of higher education. They can then continue their studies with the new M2E Master’s degree, which replaces the former MEEF Master’s degree.
“This reform presents us with a new challenge,” explains Marie Bui-Leturcq, UCLy Vice-Rector for Socio-Ecological Transition, Quality and Relations with Catholic Education. “We needed to adapt, both to fulfil one of our missions, which is to provide the best possible training for teachers in Catholic education, and to meet the teacher education needs identified across our region.”
UCLy’s wider geographical area (*) also includes Provence. Marseille is part of UCLy’s Diète, the geographical area entrusted to the University by 23 bishops, including the Archbishop of Marseille. “We serve three academic regions,” explains Marie Bui-Leturcq. “Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and the South, encompassing Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Corsica. With the Primary Education Bachelor’s degree, this is exactly what we are now doing from Lyon, Annecy and Marseille.”
ISFEC Saint-Cassien, a key local partner
The 35 students enrolled in the Primary Education Bachelor’s degree in Marseille are based at ISFEC Saint-Cassien, a long-standing partner of UCLy. UCLy’s Department of Education Sciences already works with the Institute to offer the M2E Master’s degree. The Bachelor’s degree, however, is delivered directly by UCLy, in partnership with Université Lumière Lyon 2, rather than by ISFEC.
“It is because we know each other so well that we are able to complement one another and ensure that our students benefit from all the essential elements of their education,” explains Marie Bui-Leturcq. UCLy contributes its expertise in teacher education and its research in Education Sciences, while students also benefit from Catholic education networks as they prepare to enter the profession. The programme takes a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to the role of primary school teachers, with in-depth consideration of contemporary issues including sustainable development and secularism.
The Primary Education Bachelor’s degree also brings together a genuine student community across Lyon, Marseille and Annecy, with connections to the M2E Master’s programmes. “This is a community that we need to nurture,” says Marie Bui-Leturcq, “by encouraging as many opportunities as possible for academic collaboration and exchanges between students.”
A visit to strengthen connections
Highlighting the importance of the new Primary Education Bachelor’s degree in Marseille, UCLy Rector Father Grégory Woimbée travelled to the city on 8 September to meet the students and welcome them to UCLy. He also took the time to meet the administrative and academic teams who will bring UCLy to life in Marseille and to speak with them personally.
The visit also provided an opportunity to discuss the need for renewed educational ambition: one that fully addresses the emerging needs of students and of the pupils they will one day teach. “We need to restore the full meaning of education by approaching it in an integral way,” explained UCLy’s Rector. This vision of integral education, attentive to each individual and enriched by the interplay of different disciplines, experiences and perspectives, lies at the heart of UCLy’s educational project, a commitment the University intends to reaffirm even more strongly in the years ahead.
This Bachelor’s degree also represents a shared challenge for students and teachers in Lyon, Annecy and Marseille: building a community today to shape the education of tomorrow, together.
(*) The 23 dioceses that make up UCLy’s Diète are: Aix-en-Provence, Ajaccio, Annecy, Autun, Avignon, Belley-Ars, Chambéry, Chaumont/Langres, Digne, Dijon, Gap, Grenoble, Le Puy, Lons-le-Saunier/St Claude, Lyon, Marseille, Monaco, Moulins, Nice, Saint-Étienne, Toulon, Valence and Viviers-sur-Rhône.