The engineering school market - France

The French system is extremely particular and unique in the world. In the United States, for example, engineering programs are integrated into universities, with the option of a Master of Science (MS) or Master of Engineering (Meng) at the end of the bachelor's degree. The global market is dominated by American and British schools , with institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge. French schools are finding it hard to gain a foothold in international rankings due to their small size compared with the major American or Chinese universities. As a result, they are grouping together to form conglomerates of schools and universities such as PSL (Paris Sciences et Lettres), Université Paris-Saclay and Institut Polytechnique. Numerous rankings of French engineering schools are published every year, according to different criteria and weightings. However, a top 5 has been emerging for several years, comprising École Polytechnique, Mines Paris - PSL, CentraleSupélec, École des Ponts ParisTech and Télécom Paris. In addition, there are several networks of engineering schools, including INSA (Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg...), Centrales (Paris, Lyon, Nantes...) and Mines (Alès, Carmaux, Saint-Etienne). Competition exists at two levels: the best schools position themselves on their reputation, their international influence and their academic output, while the smaller schools position themselves on the specialization of their studies. The trend is towards the internationalization of schools, the development of partnerships with other academic institutions, the recruitment of researchers for academic production, and the ecological transition. The government's goal is to train 50,000 engineers a year by the end of the five-year term in 2027. According to the Conférence des Directeurs des Écoles Françaises d'Ingénieurs, 46,500 engineers graduated in 2022. However, projections point to a potential shortfall of 54,000 engineers in the industrial and IT sectors by 2030.