Administrative Supervision of Engineering Schools

In France, the title "ingénieur diplômé" (degreed engineer) is protected by a 1934 law: Only establishments entitled by the CTI (Commission on titles for engineers) are allowed to grant the title of degreed engineer.
Training programs entitled to grant engineering degrees in France can either be:

public institutions, dependent either directly on the State or on other public establishments
Their structure is determined by legislative documents created by the different ministries that schools are dependent on (these documents are either décrets or arrêtés).
151 establishments providing initial training for engineers are public institutions.

private institutions, subject to the regulations on private education
For engineering programs, these regulations take the form either of the Code d'Enseignement technique (laws on technical education) established by the Ministry of National Education or of the Loi sur l'Enseignement agricole (laws on agricultural education) established by the Ministry of Agriculture.
32 establishments providing initial training for engineers are private institutions.

"écoles consulaires", institutions under the authority of specific public establishments -- chambers of commerce and industry, or chambers of agriculture -- whose teaching activity is regulated in the private domain
14 establishments providing initial training for engineers are under the supervision of chambers of commerce.

Certain private institutions can also be associated with public educational establishments (e.g. the relationship between Supélec and Paris XI).

Here is a chart of the classification of engineering schools by statute:

Every public institution is associated with a ministry that is responsible for its supervision, namely, that fixes its endowment, regulates the general activity of the school, and usually nominates its directors. This type of supervision is known as administrative supervision.
Private institutions are also under the supervision of a ministry. Engineering programs are overseen by one of two ministries: the Ministry of National Education or the Ministry of Agriculture. Their supervision is known as pedagogical supervision.

Here is a chart of the classification of engineering schools by ministry:

Here is a table showing engineering schools by statute and supervision:

76% of the engineering training institutions are under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education; more than 30% of them are in the private domain (pedagogical supervision).

Engineering schools can be classified by their supervising ministries, but also by their judicial status.

Public institutions can have the following different statuses:

they can be structures directly dependent on the government in the form of services of a ministry (this is the case for certain schools under the supervision of technical ministries)
they can be autonomous structures in the form of public establishments having their own director and administrative board.
There are two types of public establishment relating to engineering schools:
- the EPCAs (Etablissements Publics à Caractère Administratif, or public administrative establishments)
- the EPCSCPs (Etablissements Publics à Caractère Scientifique, Culturel ou Professionnel, or public scientific, cultural or professional establishments). The EPCSCPs have a specific status defined by the law on higher education of 1984 initiated by the Ministry of Higher Education.
they can be structures integrated into EPCSCPs or EPCA.

For the establishments dependent on the administrative supervision of the Minstry of Nationale Education, the higher education law of 1984 defined three types of EPCSCP:

universities or INPs (Instituts Nationaux Polytechniques, or national polytechnic institutes)
schools or institutes outside of universities (articles 34-36)
Grands Etablissements (article 37) that may deviate from some of the standards of organization and activity.

There are two types of programs within the EPCSCPs:

schools or institutes within a university or INP (article 33)
UFRs (Unités de Formation et Recherche, research and training units) of a university or INP (article 32)

Public institutions that don't depend on the Ministry of National Education for supervision can choose to adopt the status of EPCSCP as defined by these laws; for example, the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, until recently under the supervision of the Ministry of Equipement, became a Grand Etablissement.
In addition, certain EPCAs can associate themselves with an EPCSCP (article 43) which allows them to be entitled to both train students in research and deliver third cycle degrees.
The different statuses of the schools gives them different degrees of autonomy.

"Ecoles consulaires" can either have the status of associations according to law 1901 or can simply be classified as services of the chamber of commerce.

Private schools can have several possible statuses: They can be classified as associations according to law 1901, or more rarely, they can be classified as société anonyme (SA), société à responsabilité limitée (SARL), foundation, or economics interesst group. A small number of groups have associated themselves with universities (article 43).
Among private institutions, the NFI (nouvvelles formations d'ingénieurs or new engineering training programs) have a special status: Created under temporary regulations, they regroup diverse partners (educational institutions, businesses, professional associations...) within the structure of a private educational institution. The educational institutions associated with these partnerships are entitled to deliver engineering degrees in their name.

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Engineering education in France

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