Educational values

Disciplines and tracks

During the second year each student selects a more specialized “section”, or track, to follow.

• “Economie et Finances” is focused on the management of companies and organizations and provides a pathway towards jobs in business.
• “Service Public” prepares students for a wide range of careers in the civil service, from those students wishing to attend the illustrious ‘‘Ecole Nationale d'Administration'' to those aiming at leadership jobs in local administrations, jobs in government departments, and also careers in law.
• “Politique et Société” targets the jobs offered by the press and media, cultural institutions, academic research and NGO's.

Let's say that this is the blueprint – the aim of the Institute. But through the strength of innovation and multidisciplinary training, the skills of our students often overlap. This can be seen when a “Po-So” graduate becomes a business manager, when a “service public” graduate is recruited as a journalist or an “Ecofi” graduate is appointed as a consultant for a local council. Such a wide scope of opportunities are guarantees satisfaction and success for the young people who graduate from this Institute.

The third year of the IEP program is organized abroad: for the most part this involves time spent in a foreign university. However it can also involve a few months spent working in business or in the service of the French foreign ministry. This year also includes a two-three month internship in a company for all students. Still faithful to the “Sciences-Po” pattern, the fourth and last years are dedicated to giving more time and space to practical training, especially in the final year which is focused on bridging studies with job hunting and preparing students for the world of work. The fourth year offers a rich choice of courses among which each student selects his or her personalized curriculum, in anticipation of the final year of studies, increasingly focused on specialised training and internships.

French style tutorials

In addition to the pillars of multidisciplinary training and internationalism, the third pillar of the Sciences-Po spirit is the central importance of skills-based training. Our tutorials are called “conférences de méthodes” and are designed to enhance and develop the skills of every student.

In groups of twenty or so, students learn to debate and value oral and written expression skills, through books, articles and texts that they are taught to fully analyze and exploit. They also gain a global vision of their work which allows them to draw together the knowledge they have obtained from their studies of management, sociology, International relations and administrative law.

The goals are clear: to produce well informed minds, cleverly critical citizens, to channel into the professional world young men and women able to be efficient and autonomous, and also able to digest the unending changes of knowledge, rules and threats which is part of the “liquid modernity” of today's world.