Grandes écoles

The French Grande école (French, German Great School ) is a specialized institution in which usually a particular subject or a group of related subjects are taught, the course of study connects but with many general- and personality- promoting elements. These schools serve as training centers of the ruling elite in government, military, economy, science and culture, and make according to the prestigious group of the French higher education system. They range in prestige often far ahead of the universities.

However, there is no legal definition of a Grande Ecole and the term is not protected. Usually, the term therefore extend to the member universities of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles. An alternative term is École Supérieure.

Historical development

In the chaotic years of the French civil war after the Revolution (1789 ) which has existed since the Middle Ages, French universities have been dissolved ( the Sorbonne, for example, on April 5, 1792) or closed. Only under Napoleon universities were 1808 in 12 cities re-established. Parallel to the universities, which continue divided into faculties and for the traditional subjects as law and medicine, as well as the general " lettres " ( Literature / Philosophy / Philology ) were responsible, a new type were gradually universities created whose training is usually on a single subject or a group of closely related disciplines involved and the State should provide loyal and competent technical officers. An important feature of these institutions was from the beginning to the limited, focused on the expected graduates need of places and limited by entrance examinations ( concours ) channelized access. As in the latter part of the 19th century, the industry and commerce business schools ( écoles de commerce ) began to found, they followed the example of the state universities.

The successors of these facilities that today's grandes écoles, have, not least, for a long time developed thanks to the strict selection that you can practice at elite universities. In those subjects, such as economics, where there are several Grandes Ecoles are, comparisons are possible within the relevant category and rankings naturally. Also have the traditional older Grandes Écoles a higher prestige than younger institutions, and apply in and around Paris resident almost always more than the province.

Training course

The training at a Grande École normally lasts three years ( 2ème or 2nd cycle) and concludes with the diplôme or a master's degree: To be eligible for the entrance examination, the candidates must after the "bac " for two years called Classes préparatoires ( prépas ) have visited that prepare them for the high school category in question. These preparation courses are usually rare offered by selected high schools directly from the Grandes Ecoles ( 1er cycle). The participants of the prépas have to make a huge workload, are taught by the best teachers of the respective schools and are highly motivated in general. Get it in the Concours no place at the chosen university or college class at least, they can enroll in a university, usually in the third year of study. They, too, there are not as failures, but as students with a solid intermediate and high potential.

The limitation of the study course numbers and the corresponding Concours are for the support of the Grandes Écoles (government or private insurers ) is an important control element. The expected demand for graduates is determined as accurately as possible, and like a tender is awarded every year, the corresponding number of study places. Some uncertainty arises here for some time the fact that the proportion of women among the study Authorised grows strong, but by no means take their assigned places all graduates.

For admission to a master's program usually a bachelor's degree is required.

Who has been allowed and so is élève (French for pupil / students, the traditional name of the students of the grandes écoles ), the study typically includes successfully. Terminators are virtually unknown because of the severe selection in the authorization - other than to the freely accessible universities, where around 40% of students remain without a degree. The main objective of the " Eleven" is often a good place on the ranking of the graduates of their promotion, that is their year, the higher the spot on the list, the greater are the chances of being able to choose one of the best of the available sites. This applies especially to the State Corps.

The Grandes Écoles are subject in their majority (unlike the universities ) is not the Ministry of Education, but line ministries, such as the École polytechnique the Ministry of Defence, the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées the Department of Transportation or the École nationale d'administration the Ministry of Interior. The business schools ( écoles de commerce ) are, as a rule, the industry and commerce.

Students receive at some government Grandes Écoles when they undertake to enter into the civil service and to stay there for ten years already while studying a salary. The majority of the state grandes écoles requires only low tuition fees, but with non- Grandes Écoles, especially in most business schools, as sometimes charged high tuition fees that are applied to some students of business in the form of scholarships.

The Grandes écoles have good study conditions: excellent teaching, including many lecturers from practice, intensive personal care, modern teaching aids, foreign travel, and the like, but also hard-working, mutually motivating fellow students and awareness of common belonging to an elite. This interaction and sense of belonging is naturally taken over with their careers in government and business, where it leads to the emergence of relationship networks among the former, the anciens élèves, nets, which are often perceived by outsiders as impenetrable.

One of the weaknesses of the Grandes Ecoles, the recently come increasingly into view is the traditionally small number of resettled there, research institutes, and thus the lack of connection between research and teaching. Also, there is often a lack of well -established doctoral programs. The latter aroused in France but little impetus because the Ph.D. is acquired traditionally there only to universities and thus brings no social prestige.

Another problematic issue is the narrowness of the sociological recruitment base for the grandes écoles. It results mainly from the initial advantage of applicants from middle-class circles that have been sent by their families to the best schools and the best preparation classes and bring with them from their environment expected by the Concours examiners expressions and manners.

Disciplines

There is no complete, official list of grandes écoles. You can in various public legal forms, be organized as a company or even as clubs. The Conférence des Grandes Écoles as the union of the Grandes Ecoles has 216 member colleges, including 14 institutions outside France.

A general distinction is:

• The three Écoles normal supérieures: These schools train mainly researchers and lecturers. Students who have completed their curriculum are known as " ENS Alumni" ' or " standard Aliens" known. Normaliens are civil servants in training, and as such, they receive a monthly salary in exchange for their willingness to has ten years for the state. The most famous is the École Normale Supérieure in Paris ( natural and social sciences ), nicknamed " Ulm " because the address in the Rue d' Ulm;

• Engineering schools: École polytechnique here is the (nicknamed l' X) - under the supervision of the French Ministry of Defence - probably the best known and most prestigious. Other well-known schools are the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, École Centrale Paris, the École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers ( Ensam ), École nationale de la statistique et de l' administration économique ( ENSAE ), Ecole Nationale des Ponts et and Roads ( ENPC ), or the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics ( ESTP ).

• Administration colleges, social science universities ( Institute d'études politiques the nine ): Institut d' études politiques de Paris, formerly known as Institut d' Études Politiques de Paris (IEP de Paris ), is one of the most famous French grandes écoles. It lies mostly in the 7th arrondissement in the heart of Paris Saint- Germain close to many ministries and is popularly called Sciences Po plain. Two French presidents (Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand ), thirteen French prime ministers, twelve foreign heads of state or government and UN Secretary-General were trained here. Sciences Po has long trained virtually the entire French political and economic elite. Almost every French politician or diplomat has attended Sciences Po, a variety of corporate heads of major French companies. The school offers a variety of generalist held programs in political science, history, sociology, economics, but also communication, finance, economics, urban development, management and journalism. After the Second World War more IEPs were established according to the model of Sciences Po established in other parts of France ( Aix -en- Provence, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulouse). Most Sciences Po is the " ticket " for the post-graduate university ENA. It is a highly selective Administrative Academy now based in Strasbourg, on completion of which you can work directly in a French Ministry normally, although many graduates go into the private sector.

• Graduate Schools: Most business schools in France are privately run, often by the regional chambers of commerce. The three best known are the elite management schools " Trois Parisiennes ": the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales HEC, ESSEC Business School and the ESCP Europe School of Management. The heavily reformed Sciences Po Paris, not really École de Commerce in the classical sense, provides for some years very successful at business degree programs.

• Military high schools such as the French Naval Academy
• Colleges of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, such as Agro ParisTech and the Institut des sciences et industries du vivant et de l' environnement
• Veterinary schools like the École nationale d' Alfort vétérinaire

• The École Nationale des Chartes for archivists
• The École du Louvre for art historians and archaeologists

Here, the engineering and the business schools of the most common type. Especially this course differ greatly in their reputation and their selectivity

Among the most famous grandes écoles are as mentioned, the École Normale Supérieure (ENS ) and the other ENS, the École nationale d'administration (ENA ), the Sciences Po Paris, the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris - one of the seven Écoles of Mines - the five Écoles Centrales ( here, as in almost all cases, the location of the prestigious Paris ), the École Polytechnique ( X ) in Palaiseau, near Paris, the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrial de la ville de Paris ( ESPCI ParisTech ), the Ecole des Ingénieurs de la Ville de Paris, the military academy Saint- Cyr (ESM Saint- Cyr ), the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics ( ESTP ) and the business schools HEC, ESSEC and ESCP Europe in Paris, the EMLYON Business School in Lyon and the EDHEC Business School in Lille and Nice.

Also among the grandes écoles are the two Parisian art schools École nationale supérieure des beaux -arts de Paris ( ENSBA ) and the Ecole nationale supérieure des arts Décoratifs ( ENSAD ).