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Sciences Po

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Paris Institute of Political Studies
Sciences Po logo
Motto Excellence, Innovation, Diversitè
Established 1872
Director Richard Descoings
Campus Metropolitan
City Paris
Country France
Enrollment 5,500 total (1,600 foreign)
Faculty 800
Library Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, political science arm of Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Memberships grande école, grand établissement, APSIA, AMBA, AACSB, EUA
Homepage http://www.sciences-po.fr

The Paris Institute of Political Studies (French: Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris), commonly known as Sciences Po or IEP Paris, is a specialist school in Paris.

General Information

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Administration Office

The Institute is the premier school for the study and research of politics, international relations, and economics in the French-speaking world, and is a world leader in higher learning and research in social sciences. In November 2003, The Economist (Vol. 369, Issue 8352) listed it among a handful of French schools that are continental Europe's only 'competitor to America's Ivy League or Britain's Oxbridge and London School of Economics.' The Institute is part of the elite French Grandes Écoles (French: great school) and, as such, has a competitive examination for admission which prospective undergraduates spend a year studying for. It is also recognized as a Grand Établissement (French: great establishment) by the Ministry of National Education (France).

Sciences Po alumni and former staff include twenty-seven heads of state or government, specifically three past or present French presidents, twelve past or present French prime ministers, twelve past or present foreign heads of state or government, and a former United Nations Secretary-General. Since the mid 1950s, virtually every French min ister of note has attended the Institute, including the current French president, Jacques Chirac, and the current prime minister, Dominique de Villepin. It is the best place for preparing admission to the École Nationale d'Administration. As a result, the Sciences Po is widely regarded as the intellectual training ground for the French political and diplomatic elite, though it has also educated fourteen current CEO's of France's forty largest companies.

Sciences Po 27, rue Saint-Guillaume

The Institute is comprised of a series of 17th and 18th century mansions located on and around rue Saint-Guillaume in the VIe arrondissement on the Left Bank. It is just off the Seine River at the heart of the Latin Quarter. In particular, the Institute is situated in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, which is home to some of the most famous restaurants, museums, and designer boutiques in Paris. The nearest metro stops are Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Rue du Bac, and Sèvres-Babylone.

Instruction is provided by a staff of some 1,200 teachers, a majority of whom are practitioners in their respective fields and come from the highest ranks of French and European political, business, and media circles. In recent years, faculty members included Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Hubert Vedrine, a French foreign minister, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister. This unusual type of faculty is anchored by a small nucleus of tenured professors teaching full-time at Sciences Po.

History of the Institute

The name Sciences Po refers to three institutions:

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School Gardens
  • Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques (ELSP), which was replaced in 1945 by
  • Foundation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (FNSP), a research foundation
  • Institut d'Etudes Politiques (IEP), a teaching school

1872-1945

The Sciences Po was established in February 1872 as the École Libre des Sciences Politiques (ELSP), often called Ecole des Sciences Politiques, by a group of European intellectuals, politicians and businessmen including Hippolyte Taine, Ernest Renan, Albert Sorel, Paul Leroy Beaulieu, François Guizot, and led by Emile Boutmy. Following the defeat in the 1870 war, the demise of Napoleon III, and the Paris Commune, these men sought to introduce new teaching reforms in order to renew the training of French politicians. Politically and economically, people feared that France's international stature was waning due to inadequate teaching of its politicians and diplomatic corps. Thus, the Institute developed a humanistic and pragmatic teaching program.

It departed from the French higher education system of its time by emphasizing the scientific and objective study of the social sciences from a pragmatic and practical point of view. The instructors at the Institute included not only famous academics, but also practicians: Ministers, High civil servants at the Banque de France, members of the Conseil d'État. The chief mission of the Institute was then, and is today, the training of the next generation of the political and diplomatic elite in the French-speaking world. New matters such as international relations, international law, comparative government, and compared constitutional history were introduced. Sport was compulsory, and an important emphasis was put on the study of contemporary foreign societies.

1945-Present

After the liberation of France, the École Libre des Sciences Politiques underwent a major transformation. UNder the aegis of General de Gaulle the ordinance of October 9, 1945 created two distinct, yet complementary entities based on the earlier school: "Fondation nationale des sciences politiques" (FNSP) and the "l'Institut d'études politiques" (IEP). From that point on, Sciences Po developed from both of the new schools. These two entities were tasked by General de Gaulle to become the official training ground for future politicians and diplomats in the French-speaking world, and to "assure the progress and the diffusion, both within and outside France, of political science, economics and sociology."

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Academic Buildings

The Legislature also entrusted the FNSP with the management of the free school, the library, and the budget. An administrative council assured the development of these activities. A scientific aim was soon added to the school's prior documentary and editorial methods, and several research centers were created: The Centre d'étude des relations internationales (CERI)-created in 1952 with the support of the Ford Foundation, the Centre d'étude de la vie politique française (CEVIPOF), and the Service d'étude de l'activité économique (SEAE), the first two being associated with CNRS. In addition, the foundation became a scientific publication center. The Periodicals such as la Revue française de science politique, le Bulletin analytique de documentation, la Chronologie politique africaine, and the Cahiers de la Fondation all contribute to the noteriety of Sciences Po's research.

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Main Lecture Building

The IEP makes up the pedagogic nucleus of the school. The IEP thus takes the responsibility of the free school in teaching and training students, and maintains the tradition of the free school in upholding general courses while constantly creating new, innovative courses in the social sciences. It also strives to mould the next generation of leaders in the French-speaking world and beyond. Sciences Po has always strived to be, as Bernard Gournay describes, "the breeding ground where nearly all the big, non-technical state commissioners are trained" and where the international political and diplomatic elite are shaped. Sciences Po is also equipped with a business program, which endeavors to shape the next generation of business leaders.

The Institute has undergone a series of reforms under the leadership of Richard Descoings, the Director of Sciences (1997-present). Sciences Po has introduced a compulsory year abroad component to its undergraduate degree, and has emphasized a bilingual curriculum of both French and English across the school. Sciences Po has also reformed the structure of its undergraduate program, setting its length to three years in line with many other European universities. It has also taken steps to pool together the strengths of the best social science institutions by establishing over 200 partnership agreements in over 40 countries around the world. New educational sites have also been set up in Nancy, Dijon, andPoitiers in France and Casablanca in Morocco to attract students from Germany, Iberia and Latin America as well as Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Student Body & Method of Instruction

As of 2004, approximately one third of the Sciences Po's student body was foreign. This abundance of diversity is largely a result of the recent academic and administrative reforms instituted by Richard Descoings, the institute's director. These reforms resulted in a program that encourages foreign study, work placements, interdisciplinary approaches, and hands-on collaboration with fellow students.

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Entrance Sign

Instruction is provided by a staff of some 1,200 teachers, a majority of whom are practitioners in their respective fields and come from the highest ranks of French and European political, diplomatic, business, and media circles. In recent years, faculty members included Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Hubert Vedrine, a French foreign minister, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister. This unusual type of faculty is anchored by a small nucleus of tenured professors teaching full-time at Sciences Po. This real-world approach is unique in French higher education, which is sometimes criticized as too philosophical and removed from the reality of the post-academic career.

Recent Controversy

Sciences Po typically recruits its students almost exclusively from the most elite private schools in Europe and, as a result, many criticize it as overly elitist. Indeed, this is a widespread criticism of the French higher education system in general, specifically the Grandes Ecoles of which Sciences Po is a leading member. In March 2001, Richard Descoings, the current Director of the Sciences Po, persuaded the governing council of the institute to support his plan to democratize the admissions process. From September 2002, the institute began accepting a batch of students from the economically depressed suburbs of Paris on the basis of their school record and a 45-minute interview, rather than the examination that all other students must pass to win entrance into the institute. The reform is intended to widen the socio-economic characteristics of the Sciences Po student-body by admitting bright students from the Zones of Priority Education (ZEP). This reform gained international media attention, and was reported in The New York Times, The Economist, Financial Times, and BusinessWeek among other news outlets.

Research Centres

The Sciences Po is the central research institution on the political and economic sciences in the French-speaking world, and a major hub for the study and research of these fields globally. The research arm of the Sciences Po is composed of seven research centers which provide a framework for some 200 researchers. Research account for 20% of the annual budget of the Sciences Po; taken in a national perspective this effort represents the most important initiative in political science and public policy research in France today.

The center of the school’s research is the library, the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, which houses a million-volume collection of works in the various social sciences and 20th-century history, one of Europe's richest collections of its kind. The library is also the hub of the Documentary Service which maintains 16,000 press dossiers on a wide range of sub-topics ranging back over most of the century, and which each years abstracts and indexes some 17,000 articles from the 6,000 periodicals to which the Documentary Service subscribes.

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Students in 1960s

Founded in 1871, the Sciences Po Library gathers and analyzes the largest social sciences collection on the European continent: political science, economics, history, geography, law, international relations, sociology, are the areas in which it excels. Since 1982, the National Ministry of Education has made the Library the Centre for Acquisition and Disseminiation of Scientific and Technical Information, or CADIST, in the field of political science. Since 1994, it has been the antenna associated with France's renowned Bibliothèque Nationale de France, which is one of the most expansive library collections in the world.

The Sciences Po's research institution is La Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, which is dedicated to many domains of social sciences, and has research centers not only in IEP Paris but also in other IEPs. Areas of excellence include international relations (Center for International Studies - CERI), French government and politics (Center for the Study of French Politics - CEVIPOF), sociology (Center for the Study of Social Change - OSC, Center for Sociology of Organizations - CSO), political economy and economic policy (Center for Research in Economic Forecasting and Policy - OFCE, and Center for the Study of Economic Activity - SEAE), and contemporary European history {Center for Twentieth-Century European History - CHEVS).

The Institute also has a number of centralized research centers which function as small cells where the policy aspects of specific world regions are explored. These centers run specific programmes such as the Asia-Europe summer exchange or the European Studies graduate programme. They also deal with international exchanges at all levels of the Institute, and organize a series of seminars, colloquia, and publications. These centers include: the European Center, which was set up in 1995, the Mercosur Forum, which was set up in 1999, the American Center, which was set up in 2000, and the Asia-Europe Center, which was set up in 2001.

Institutional Alliances

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Amphithéâtre Emile Boutmy

Sciences Po - LSE - Columbia University

The Sciences Po recently formalized a major institutional alliance with the London School of Economics and Columbia University, which has been burgeoning for years. These schools are widely regarded as the most prestigious universities of their kind in the world's three capital cities, Paris, London, and New York. The purpose of the partnership is to foster greater academic collaboration between the students, faculty, and research centers of each institution. This specific alliance has resulted in myriad joint international policy-focused conferences held in Paris, London, and New York throughout the year. As well, the alliance has produced three joint-degree programs in International Relations, Negotiation, and the Practice of International Affairs with the LSE, a joint Master of International Affairs with Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, and a joint law degree with Columbia Law School.

===Global Public Policy Network===

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School Courtyard

Another of the more significant results of the Sciences Po - LSE - Columbia alliance is the launch of the Global Public Policy Network, or GPPN. The program was launched by representatives from all three schools on 20 September 2005 at Peking University in Beijing, China. The network is meant to foster an academic research and policy dialogue among three of the world's leading public affairs schools to address pressing global problems. The Network will eventually expand to include about ten public policy graduate schsools in key world cities, sponsoring collaborative public policy research and student and faculty exchanges, as well as offering dual degrees in graduate professional programs.

Franco-British Student Alliance

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In January 2005, US Secretary of State Rice launched America's platform to mend European disenchantment with the 2003 Iraq war at the Sciences Po

Sciences Po is also a founding member of the Franco-British Student Alliance (FBSA), a forum for students and leaders from both countries to address together the future of Franco-British relations. Founded during the Centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the FBSA unites the students and young alumni of six major universities from both sides of the Channel: Oxford University, Cambridge University, the London School of Economics (LSE), IEP Paris (the French counterpart of LSE), HEC (the top business school in Europe according to the Financial Times) and the Ecole Polytechnique (One of France's top engineering school). The ambition of the FBSA is to promote Franco-British cooperation and the global competitiveness of British and French universities.

Major Alliances Worldwide

The IEP Paris also offers certificate programs and exchange components with many other American universities, including the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. There is also a joint law degree program with Cornell Law School. Sciences Po further offers dual degree programs with Russia's State Institute of International Relations in Moscow, Ireland's University College Cork, Switzerland's Saint Gall, Poland's Szkola Glozna Handlowa in Warsaw, and Germany's Freie Universitaet Berline in Berlin.

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Sciences Po Library

Other IEPs

Institut d'Etudes Politiques is an umbrella phrase for nine universities located in cities around France, all of which are dedicated to the study of political science and public policy. The Paris institute is the only school referred to as merely the Sciences Po or the Institut d'Etudes Politiques. The other eight institutes offer similar studies and confer similar degree, the Sciences Po in Paris was the first school Institut d'Etudes Politiques created, when the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques was nationalized by General de Gaulle. Sciences Po Paris is universally regarded as the most prestigious and the most selective of the nine institutes. The other IEPs include: Institut d'études politiques de Strasbourg, Institut d'études politiques de Grenoble, Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux, Institut d'études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence, Institut d'études politiques de Lyon, Institut d'études politiques de Rennes, Institut d'études politiques de Lille, Institut d'études politiques de Toulouse.

Notable Faculty & Alumni

See also List of Sciences Po People

Heads of International Governance

Heads of State or Government

World

France

Politics & Government

World

France

Academia, Journalism & Literature

Business & Finance

Culture & Sports


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