In view of the multicultural and multilingual environment of international organizations, the IOMBA emphasises language skills and offers French language training to incoming students. The French-speaking city of Geneva offers additional avenues to master the French language. However, the city of Geneva, with its large expatriate population and numerous language schools, is also an excellent location to learn and practice other major languages, particularly Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian and Chinese.

To help students learn French, the University of Geneva offers intensive French courses through the summer prior to start of the IOMBA programme. The summer courses are paid courses, and their price is NOT included in the IOMBA tuition and fees. In addition, a wide selection of part-time intermediate to advanced level courses (but no beginner courses) are available to students throughout the academic year. These courses are offered to all students of the University of Geneva through the School of French Language and Culture (ELCF), and as such not all courses would be compatible with the IOMBA schedule. However, at no cost to IOMBA participants, this is an excellent resource that students are encouraged to take advantage of.

Beginner French students should not expect to attain fluency unless they invest a significant amount of time throughout their stay in Geneva (8-10 hours per week). In view of the intensity of the IOMBA programme, the programme highly recommends that beginners enrol in the summer courses in French at the ECLF.

Summer courses in French
The French summer courses are held from mid-July and classes are offered at all levels. Beginners can enrol in an intensive 9-week program that includes 4 hours of class everyday, and additional hours for cultural exposure and linguistic training.
Students at all levels have the flexibility to enrol in shorter sessions of 3-weeks each. Four such sessions are offered from July to September.

Details of the summer courses are available at the ECLF website.  For further information or enrolment, email the IOMBA office

French courses offered at IOMBA

During the two semesters of the IOMBA programme, french language courses are taught at IOMBA premises by University of Geneva Professors. Courses are taught once a week and are offered at two levels: beginners and pre-intermediate.

The University of Geneva is also offering courses at intermediate and advanced level at the main building of the Faculty of Literature and Modern Languages ("cours d'appui").