Type EPCSCP Doctoral students 260 Phone +33 1 47 40 20 00 Director Pierre-Paul Zalio | Established 1892 Total enrollment 1,337 (2015) Founded 1912 Postgraduates 1,360 | |
Location Cachan, Val-de-Marne, Île-de-France, France Nickname ENS Paris-Saclay, Normale Sup' Paris-Saclay Website www.ens-paris-saclay.fr Address 61 Avenue du Président Wilson, 94230 Cachan, France Affiliations UniverSud Paris, Conférence des Grandes écoles Notable alumni Alain Aspect, Bernard Charlès, Marc Yor, Elie Bursztein, Alain Finkielkraut Similar École Normale Supérieure, École Polytechnique, University of Paris‑Sud, École Centrale Paris, ENSAE ParisTech Profiles | ||
The École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay (also ENS Paris-Saclay or Normale Sup' Paris-Saclay), formerly ENS Cachan, is a high education institution located in Cachan within the Val-de-Marne department near Paris, in the Île-de-France region of France.
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It is one of the most prestigious and selective French Grandes Écoles. Like all the other Grandes écoles, this higher education institution is not included in the mainstream framework of the French public universities. It belongs to the informal network of French écoles normales supérieures, along with the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the ENS de Lyon and the ENS de Rennes .
In 2014 it became a founding member of the confederal University of Paris-Saclay.
Overview
Its main mission 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). 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 for their studies and have to work for a French public administration for six years when their four-year curriculum at the ENS is completed. ENS Paris-Saclay also recruits some students from the university; the latter are not required to work for a French public administration but are not paid either.
Students of the ENS Paris-Saclay 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 : Mathematics, Computer Science, Fundamental Physics, Chemistry, Biology for the scientific department, Electronics, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering for the engineering departments, 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 in Poland, Complutense or Carlos III University of Madrid in Spain, MIT, Oxford, 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 (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 Ecoles such as Sciences Po, HEC, École Polytechnique 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 entrance exam.