Mediator

Any staff member or user at the university, (student, apprentice, continuing education trainee), can request the mediator. However, applicants wanting to register for courses at the university cannot use these services.

The mediator may be called upon in the case of:

•  A dispute with the institution for which, if after contacting the services and authorities concerned, no answer or solution deemed satisfactory by the applicant has been found (institutional mediation)

• The existence of relational difficulties between two (or more) people within a structure (interpersonal mediation).

The mediator does not intervene for:

• Personal conflicts of a private nature, which have no connection with the functioning of the university

• Disputes falling within the prerogatives of each university authority insofar as they concern it or which could be resolved a priori by referral to a university authority;

• Academic disputes concerning questions relating to grading or jury decisions.

Within the framework of institutional mediation, the mediator proposes any method of resolution that seems appropriate, in compliance with the legal framework and the university's internal provisions. The mission is to facilitate the resolution of the dispute by the parties. They remain free to abandon the mediation process at any time with no justification necessary.

The recourse to the mediator of Sorbonne University as a method of settlement of disputes is the guarantee of:

• A appeal free of charge
• Benefit from the mediator's knowledge of the institution
• The speed of the response, compared to other procedures

For interpersonal mediations, the mediator organizes the framework that allows the parties to exchange views in a calm manner and to work out a solution to their conflict together. The mediator respects a code of ethics and commits to:

• Neutrality: The mediator does not take a position (s/he is neither a judge nor an arbitrator), in particular with regard to the solutions chosen by the parties
• Independence: This person is not subject to any pressure, either internal or external to the mediation. If the conditions of their independence are no longer guaranteed, the mediator will interrupt the mediation
• Impartiality: the mediator has no shared interest with any of the parties; s/he is fair and equitable with each of them, the mediator is present for both of them; in case of proximity with one of the parties, the mediator relinquishes the case and proposes to pass it on to another institutional mediator (academic mediator, for example)
• Confidentiality: only the parties can lift the confidentiality of the elements exchanged during the mediation