Schools of Engineering

Today, two legal statuses coexist among the French schools of engineering. There can either be:

• State Schools of Engineering, placed under the authority of the government and its ministries.
  • A state school can be created within a university
  • Or it can be independent.
• Private Schools of Engineering, some of which are placed under the authority of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Among these schools, some choose to offer non-specialised trainings, and other focus on specific courses leading to specialisations.
Together, the French Schools of Engineering form a strong network, distributed all over the country. They train engineers in every subject and every domain of sciences and engineering sciences. Beside being initial and lifelong training providers, Schools of Engineering also have research and technological transfer activities. 

Some Engineering Schools offers programmes in English for their international students or for those who wish to follow courses in English. All programmes taught in English are listed on the CampusFrance website. 

Plenty of schools choose to affiliate to networks, in order to mutualise their efforts. The main networks are:

• Arts et Métiers ParisTech: gathering all campuses of the Arts et Métiers ParisTech School;
• The “Ecoles Centrales” network (“EC”);
• The national schools of engineering network (“ENI”);
• The “FESIC schools” network, made up of 27 Engineering and Business Schools;
• The “Fédération Gay-Lussac”, which brings together 19 French chemistry and chemical Engineering Schools;
• The group of aeronautics and spatial schools (“GEA”);
• The “GEIPI Polytech” schools: students passing the common “GEIPI Polytech” exam can access one of the 26 schools of the network;
• The “Ecoles des Mines” network (“GEM”)
• The National Polytechnic Institutes (“INP”)
• The National Institutes forApplied Sciences (“INSA”)
• The Mines-Telecom Institute ("IMT")
• The Polytechnique Paris Institute ("IP Paris")
• The “ParisTech” schools
• The “Polytech” national network, gathering all University Polytechnic Schools;
• The “UGEI” network, gathering 25 Engineering and Management independent Schools.