Engineering Education in France

A puzzling matter

Foreigners often see the French engineering education system as complicated and difficult to get into. When the system looks at itself, it highlights its particularities, namely non-specialized studies or a highly competitive selection which borders on elitism.
Nobody disputes the rather good training level of the French engineers. They can indeed pride themselves upon unarguable industrial or technological successes, particularly in aeronautics, high speed trains or telecommunication systems ... and upon high social consideration.

We must take as a reality the wide diversity of the engineering training which has been developed in France over the last few years, within universities as well as new practically-oriented engineering schools (NFI) and shorter training cycles (IUP). This widened scope of interests fosters the training of more engineers and high-level technicians, and shapes new graduates to their potential employers needs. Such diversity can have a role in downplaying the traditional picture of French engineering education, often viewed by foreign partners as a conglomerate of very demanding institutions sometimes perceived as restrai-ning exchanges.

A diversified landscape with common characteristics

• A competitive system where the scientific baccalauréat is prevalent

  Competition and selection are strongly connected to any engineering education. Selection occurs :

  either by the competitive examinations at the end of preparatory classes (leading to most prestigious engineering schools),
  or immediately after the Baccalauréat, based on students' grades and interviews, - or after a few university years, or after IUT or STS.

Access to engineering schools is only open to good or very good high school students with sufficient scientific background. However, opening engineering schools to graduates of DUT, BTS or DEUG, and developing new engineering schools (NFI) has allowed high school students with a technological back-ground to enter engineering schools.

• An Engineer degree at the Baccalauréat + 5 years level

All engineering programmes which are accredited by the CTI (Commission des Titres d'Ingénieurs) lead to the Engineer Degree after a curriculum corresponding to a level of 5 years of studies after the Baccalauréat.

• Connection between engineering schools and companies

In the last 15 years, many relationships have developed between schools and companies, aiming at adapting the programs to needs of the job market. They may lead to true partnerships between schools and companies (sponsoring student activities, forums and seminars, lending equipment, teaching by compa-ny representatives). Companies appreciate getting students involved in internships scheduled within the school curriculum.

Internships were first established because companies claimed that studies were too abstract, and to pre-pare future engineers for the workplace. Internships are now offered in all schools and at least one inter-nship is mandatory in 90 % of the schools.
Three kinds of internships are organized by schools : - observation or workman internships - technician internships - engineering internships These various internships are part of the study program, and follow one another in a pedagogical pro-gression. Some of them occur during summer vacations.

The average total duration of all internships is 28 weeks, but there are big differences between engi-neering schools. The last internship (engineering internship) is usually the longest, lasting about 18 weeks. The total duration of internships is between 15 and 30 % of total study time, and sometimes more than that.
The quality of the internships is important to get a degree : most schools give it a weight of 10 to 30 % in the final grade, and some of them only give the degree after completing the internships.

 claude.maury@wanadoo.fr Leave any suggestions, ideas or improvements that could be used.
http://www.cri.ensmp.fr/~cefi/