Mediation at Sorbonne University

Anyone working at the university, staff or user (student, apprentice, continuing education trainee), can contact the mediator. However, candidates who would like to register cannot apply to the mediation office.

The mediator may be contacted in the case of:

• a dispute with the establishment, after steps have been taken with the services and authorities concerned, and where no response or solution deemed satisfactory by the applicant has been found (institutional mediation);

• the existence of relational difficulties between two (or more) people within an office or department (interpersonal mediation).

The mediator does not intervene in the case of:

• conflicts of a personal or private nature, having as such no connection with the functioning of the university;

• disputes falling within the prerogatives of each of the university authorities as far as they are concerned or likely to be a priori resolved by referral to a university authority;

• academic conflicts regarding issues relating to grading or jury decisions.

As part of institutional mediation, the mediator proposes any resolution method that appears appropriate to them, while respecting the legal framework and the university's internal provisions. On the other hand, they do not have any decision-making power, this remains the prerogative of the competent structures on the subject treated.

Recourse to the Sorbonne University mediator as a method of resolving disputes guarantees:

• Mediation free of charge;

• The benefit of the knowledge that the mediator has of the establishment;

• The speed of the response, compared to other procedures.

For interpersonal mediation, the framework is organized allow the parties to exchange calmly and develop a solution to their conflict together. The mediator respects a code of ethics and undertakes to ensure:

• Freedom of participation: the parties are free to abandon the mediation process at any time without having to justify themselves;

• Neutrality: to not take a position (it is neither a judge nor an arbitrator), in particular with regard to the solutions adopted by the parties;

• Independence: the mediation is detached from any internal or external pressure. If the conditions of its independence are no longer guaranteed, the mediator interrupts the mediation;

• Impartiality: the mediator has no conflict of interest with one of the parties; the mediator is fair and equitable with each of them, the mediator is there for both; in the event of closeness with one of the parties, the mediator relinquishes the file and offers to transmit it to another institutional mediator (academic mediator, for example);

• Confidentiality: only the parties can lift the confidentiality of elements exchanged during mediation.

In addition to mediation actions, the mediator promotes this method of conflict resolution within the university.