The Grandes Écoles : an outdated system or a product for the future ?

• Patrice de FOURNAS
  Russell Reynolds Associates
  Author of Quelle identité pour les Grandes Écoles de commerce ? (thesis, École polytechnique)
  
• Nicolas MOTTIS
  Former director, ESSEC Business School
  Chairman of the International Accreditation Quality Committee (AACSB)
  
• Claude RIVELINE
  Professor, École des mines, Paris
  
• Pierre VELTZ
  Author of Faut-il sauver les Grandes Écoles ? (Presses de Sciences Po)
  

Summary

What should be taught in the Grandes écoles (French higher education institutions with a competitive entrance examination) ? Should they encourage contact between students and professors and maintain their limited size, or grow in order to become more visible thus increasing their internal diversity ? What role should they play in the French system of higher education ? How can they become accessible and attract students from the entire French population ? What position should they take with respect to the American university model ? Do the Grandes écoles of engineering deserve to be an essential requirement for entry into business schools ? For the past two centuries, the Grandes écoles have been thriving in the French higher education system while coming under fire from critics. Globalisation is re-opening the debate. Four professionals and experts in the system discuss their own ideas, and give us a theoretical background on which to base our own observations.

Summary translated from French by Rachel MARLIN.

• The entire article was written by Loïc VIEILLARD-BARON.

To obtain this article, you can :

• download it in French (PDF help) using your password or contact ecopar@paris.ensmp.fr (Reference IN040208).

The entire article appears in French in the Journal de l'École de Paris du management N° 72.