The École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay (also ENS Paris-Saclay or Normale Sup' Paris-Saclay), formerly ENS Cachan, is a

grande école A ''grande école'' () is a specialised university that is separate from, but parallel and often connected to, the main framework of the French public university system. The grandes écoles offer teaching, research and professional training in s ...

and a constituent member of

Paris-Saclay University Paris-Saclay University (french: Université Paris-Saclay) is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 prestigious universities that emerged from the division of the University of Paris, also known as the Sorbonne ...

. It was established in 1892. It is located in

Gif-sur-Yvette Gif-sur-Yvette (, literally ''Gif on Yvette'') is a commune in south-western Ile de France, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Geography The town is crossed by and named after the river Yvette. The total area is and is green s ...

within the

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.department near

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...

, France. ENS Paris-Saclay is one of the most prestigious and selective French '' grandes écoles''. Like all other ''grandes écoles'', this elite higher education institution is not included in the mainstream framework of the French public universities. Along with the

École normale supérieure (Paris) The ''École normale supérieure - PSL'' (; also known as ''ENS'', ''Normale sup, ''Ulm'' or ''ENS Paris'') is a ''grande école'' university in Paris, France. It is one of the constituent members of Paris Sciences et Lettres University (PSL). ...

, ENS Lyon and ENS Rennes, the school belongs to the informal network of French '' écoles normales supérieures'', forming the top level of research and education in the French higher educational system. In 2014, ENS Paris-Saclay became a founding member of the

, an initiative to integrate and combine resources from a number of different ''grandes écoles'', public universities, and research institutions. The school moved in 2019 to a new campus located in the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

on the Saclay plateau, France's "Silicon Valley," where it will be near other members of the

Paris-Saclay Paris-Saclay is a research-intensive and business cluster currently under construction in the south of Paris, France. It encompasses research facilities, two French major universities with higher education institutions (''grandes écoles'') and ...

research-intensive and business cluster.

Overview

''École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay'' is a ''Grande École'', a French institution of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...

that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the French public university system. Similar to the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

in the United States, Oxbridge in the UK, and C9 League in China, ''Grandes Écoles'' are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process. ''Grandes Écoles'' typically they have much smaller class sizes and student bodies than public universities in France, and many of their programs are taught in English. While most ''Grandes Écoles'' are more expensive than French universities, ''École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay'' charges the same tuition fees: €243 annually for the Master’s degree in 2021/2022. International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of the ''Grandes Écoles''. Degrees from ''École normale supérieure'' are accredited by the ''Conférence des Grandes Écoles'' and awarded by the Ministry of National Education (France) (french: Le Ministère de L'éducation Nationale). Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France. Monique de Saint-Martin, « Les recherches sociologiques sur les grandes écoles : de la reproduction à la recherche de justice », Éducation et sociétés 1/2008 (),
lire en ligne
sur Cairn.infoValérie Albouy et Thomas Wanecq
Les inégalités sociales d’accès aux grandes écoles
(2003), INSEE The main mission of ENS Paris-Saclay is to train world-class academics, but it is also a starting point for public administrative or private executive careers. It recruits mostly from the very competitive "classes préparatoires" (see also

Grande École Grande means "wikt:large, large" or "great (disambiguation), great" in many of the Romance languages. It may also refer to: Places *Grande, Germany, a municipality in Germany *Grande Communications, a telecommunications firm based in Texas *Gran ...

). Students of the ENS Paris-Saclay who passed the entrance exam are civil servants and are known as "normaliens". Normaliens are paid a monthly salary (around €1300 ) by the French government, and are required to have an academic career or work for a French public administration for six years after their four-year curriculum at the ENS is completed. ENS Paris-Saclay also recruits other university students; the latter are not required to work for a French public administration but are not paid either. Students follow the standard university curriculum ( Licence, Master, and most of the time PhD). They are encouraged -though it is not mandatory- to take then the Agrégation competitive examination. There are 17 departments : the scientific departments of Biology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Fundamental Physics, Chemistry; the engineering departments of Electronics, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering; Economics and Management, Social Sciences, Languages, Design. ENS Paris-Saclay cooperates with many foreign universities, for example in student exchange programs. One of them is MONABIPHOT developed in cooperation with

Wrocław University of Technology Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

in Poland,

Complutense The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public university, public resea ...

or Carlos III University of Madrid in Spain,

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, Humboldt.

Admission

The admission to the ENS Paris-Saclay as ''normalien'' is made through a highly competitive entrance examination, and requires at least two years of preparation after high school in Classes Préparatoires (Scientific (BCPST, MPSI, PCSI...), Literary ( B/L) and Business sections (Economics and Management)). The ENS Paris-Saclay recruits every year 360 normaliens and 800 degree seeking students.

Curriculum

Though ''normaliens'' follow the standard university curriculum, they have the opportunity to pursue their studies in other '' grandes écoles'' such as Sciences Po, HEC,

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

and the ENSAE without having to take an entrance exam (or only a part of it). Normaliens can join the ''Grands Corps techniques d'Etat'' or prepare the

ENA Ena or ENA may refer to: Education * École nationale d'administration, French Grande école, for civil service * Education Networks of America, Internet service provider Fictional characters * Ena Sharples, from the British soap opera ''Coron ...

entrance exam.

Notable alumni

* Philippe Aghion (French economist) *

Alain Aspect Alain Aspect (; born 15 June 1947) is a French physicist noted for his experimental work on quantum entanglement. Aspect was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, "for experiments with entangl ...

(French physicist) *

Julie Battilana Julie Battilana is a scholar, educator, and advisor in the areas of social innovation and social change at Harvard University. She is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the Alan L. Gleitsman P ...

(Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School) *

Laurent Batsch Laurent may refer to: *Laurent (name), a French masculine given name and a surname **Saint Laurence (aka: Saint ''Laurent''), the martyr Laurent **Pierre Alphonse Laurent, mathematician **Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent, amateur astronomer, discoverer ...

(French economist-President of

Paris Dauphine University Paris Dauphine University - PSL (french: Université Paris-Dauphine, also known as Paris Dauphine - PSL or Dauphine - PSL) is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 universities formed by the division of the ancie ...

) * Elie Bursztein (French computer scientist) * Bernard Charlès (CEO of Dassault Systemes) * Mérouane Debbah (Director Huawei France R&D) * Erwan Dianteill (French cultural anthropologist) *

Michel Lallement Michel may refer to: * Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name) * Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers) * Míchel (footballer, born 1963), S ...

(French sociologist) * Marie-Noëlle Lienemann (French politician) * Éloïc Peyrache (French economist) *

Olivier Rubel Olivier is the French form of the given name Oliver. It may refer to: * Olivier (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Olivier (surname), a list of people * Château Olivier, a Bordeaux winery *Olivier, Louisiana, a rural popul ...

(Business school professor) *

Marc Yor Marc Yor (24 July 1949 – 9 January 2014) was a French mathematician well known for his work on stochastic processes, especially properties of semimartingales, Brownian motion and other Lévy processes, the Bessel processes, and their applicat ...

(French mathematician) *

Gabriel Zucman Gabriel Zucman (born 30 October 1986) is a French economist who is currently an associate professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley‘s Goldman School of Public Policy. The author of '' The Hidden Wealth o ...

(French economist)

References

External links

ENS Paris-Saclay website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecole Normale Superieure De Cachan Universities in Île-de-France Cachan, Ecole normale Superieure Cachan Cachan Cachan