Following the success of the University Institutes  of Technology (I.U.T) in France, a group of I.U.T. Chancellors decides to promote this new concept of undergraduate technological degree on an international basis. This project arouses the strong interest of Jean François Poncet, then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Alice Saunier Seité, then Minister for Higher Education: a non-profit association came into being, named I.U.T International.

I.U.T International develops its first programs of overseas scholarships with countries such as Venezuela, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq... Hundreds of students from these countries enter the French IUT and qualify as Upper Level Technicians (Assistant Engineers). These programs constitute the very first opening of the IUT network to international cooperation.

The Minister of National Education, Alain Savary, fully supporting the idea of international cooperation and of exporting French know-how in this field, persuades the government to create a sustainable organization for promoting and exporting the French potential of Education and Training.