Notes from the President’s Office No. 15 From Paris to Paris: Our Role in a Global University Alliance

Professor Motohiro Tsuchiya

Vice-President for Global Engagement

I was having lunch at a restaurant in Paris with Keio University President Kohei Itoh and staff from the Global Engagement Office. After snapping a photo of the meal, I noticed an email with the subject line: “Urgent: Breakfast at the Élysée Palace Tomorrow Morning.” “Ah,” I thought. “There it is!　A day earlier than expected, though.”

We were in Paris to attend the U7+ Alliance Presidential Summit. The U7+ Alliance is a network of universities from Group of Seven (G7) member countries. Several engagement groups have been established to work with the G7, including the “Business 7” (B7), the “Women 7” (W7), and the “Labor 7” (L7). In 2019, responding to French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative, Sciences Po invited leading universities from around the world to establish the U7+ Alliance. Keio was among its founding members.

The “U7,” of course, stands for “University Seven.” But why the “+”? This is because the Alliance has expanded beyond universities in the seven G7 countries and includes institutions from other democratic nations such as South Korea, India, South Africa, and Ghana, bringing the membership to approximately 50 universities.

Although the U7+ was established in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented in-person presidential meetings in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, however, President Itoh and I attended the summit held in Nice, France. The following year, Keio hosted the U7+ Presidential Summit, timed to precede the G7 Summit held later that spring in Hiroshima. This culminated in the presentation of the Alliance's joint statement to then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, proving a great success for the Alliance.

In 2024, the Presidential Summit was hosted by Bocconi University in Italy, followed by the University of Ottawa in Canada in 2025. In 2026, seven years after its founding, the U7+ Alliance returned to Paris, with Sciences Po, École Polytechnique, and Université Paris Cité serving as co-hosts.  Since 2025, President Itoh has also served as Chair of the U7+ Presidential Steering Committee, which provides leadership for the Alliance. 2026 marked an important milestone: meeting face-to-face with President Emmanuel Macron, whose call for action originally led to the creation of U7+, and sharing the present-day Alliance’s vision.

The Presidential Summit was scheduled to begin with a dinner on April 14, followed by a full day of meetings on April 15. A meeting with President Macron had originally been planned for either the evening of the 14th or the morning of the 15th. But then we received the unexpected message from the Élysée Palace: France’s president wished to invite the U7+ university leaders to a breakfast meeting on the morning of the 14th instead, moving the schedule forward by a full day.

Many of the U7+ presidents had not yet arrived in Paris on April 13. Fortunately, we had anticipated something like this might happen, and had arranged for President Itoh to arrive a day early. That decision proved invaluable. Alongside President Itoh, twelve university presidents and vice presidents representing member institutions attended the breakfast meeting. President Macron, perceiving much significance in the ensuing discussion, eagerly seized the opportunity to write down the points raised, and what had been scheduled as a 60-minute meeting ultimately lasted 90 minutes. President Itoh and the other participants emerged from the meeting all smiles, clearly pleased with the outcome.

The joint U7+ communiqué presented by the university presidents during this year's summit, titled “The Social Role of Universities in a Divided World,” was drafted under the leadership of Georgetown University Vice President Thomas Banchoff. Its opening declaration reads:

Today’s universities can no longer focus solely on education and research. In the joint communiqué, the U7+ called on G7 political leaders to partner with universities in three key areas: (1) institutional support for universities’ educational and research mission, (2) national consultations, and (3) international cooperation. At the same time, the Alliance does not only call on others for action. We also committed ourselves to three responsibilities: (1) educational excellence, (2) conducting research for impact, and (3) advancing civil discourse.

Universities were once dismissed as “ivory towers,” expected only to pursue scientific inquiry. Today, however, they are called upon to identify pressing societal challenges, develop solutions, and share them with the wider world. Universities have become engines for renewing divided societies and places where we can learn together with the next generation of leaders. For Keio, the U7+ is a forum where we share our vision for the role of universities in society while continuing to learn, evolve, and grow alongside our global partners.