The CentraleSupélec Grand Établissement, resulting from the two Grands Établissements École Centrale Paris and Supélec, is founded on the historical international ambitions of these two institutions. With three national campuses, in Gif-sur-Yvette, Rennes and Metz, CentraleSupélec is developing international openness according to the strengths of each campus, with the following aims:
- To train the best French and international students, destined for international careers, to the highest level
- To develop research that is renowned for its excellence among peers and to serve society
- To support global companies in their markets and large organizations in their activities
For more than 25 years, CentraleSupélec, along with the other members of the École Centrale Group (École Centrale Marseille, École Centrale Nantes, École Centrale Lille and École Centrale Lyon), has developed a worldwide network of top-ranking partner universities: in the major European countries with the T.I.M.E. network (Top Industrial Managers for Europe created in 1989 on the initiative of École Centrale Paris), in China with the 5+6 double degree exchange program created in 1995, and in Brazil with the 5+6 double degree network.
Since 2000, CentraleSupélec has furthermore developed bilateral relationships with the best institutions in the USA (in particular Stanford, Columbia, Penn State and Georgia Tech), in the UK (Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, etc.), in Singapore (NUS, NTU, etc.), and in Japan (Keio, Tohoku, Waseda, etc.), South Korea (KAIST, Hanyang, etc.), South America (USP, Unicamp, etc.), Australia (UQ, UNSW, etc.) and has coordinated large Erasmus Mundus partnership programs with many regions all over the world.
In the creation of CentraleSupélec, the partnership policy of the four national campuses will initially be shared, optimized and aligned with the institution’s global development strategy applied to the two existing Engineering programs, (École Centrale and Supélec) and research and innovation activities.
In a second step (slated for 2017), CentraleSupélec will develop a unified CentraleSupélec Engineering program, the format of which is to be defined, but having a strong international dimension and developed from the existing programs.
Already, CentraleSupélec has established a policy to intensify its international activities on each continent, strengthening its relationships with essential partners to go beyond simple student exchanges and even beyond double degrees.
In parallel, CentraleSupélec will pursue the policy initiated in 2005 by École Centrale Paris of developing a network of international campuses:
- in China with an academic partner,
- in India with an industrial partner and
- in Morocco with a State partner.
This network of institutions, a truly regional web, will be one of the important aspects of CentraleSupélec’s globalization and of the internationalization of its future unified program, its students and its teaching body.
With this across-the-board internationalization strategy, CentraleSupélec is strengthening its partnerships around three major fields: training, research and business, adopting a spirit of innovation fully embracing new digital technologies.
The aim of CentraleSupélec is to rapidly reach a level of 40% international students (Master’s, Engineering and Doctoral students), especially from other European countries. For double degrees, the school will continue to test new multi-site partnerships enabling French and foreign students to finish their studies in France or to complete a true shared experience of studies between two countries in a co-developed program.
For credit exchanges, CentraleSupélec targets the spring semester for a maximum of exchanges with a significant and thematic English component offering. A mobility specialty program is offered to students at the end of their program or seeking a specialization is aligned with their initial training.
To increase the volume of its recruitment, CentraleSupélec will develop a fee-based training program and access routes for engineering training for students from non-partner universities outside of Europe. This offering will be progressively developed with the creation of training programs taught entirely in English as well as international doctorate programs, particularly in Cotutelle (an agreement on joint supervision on the doctoral degree level), already initiated for Université Paris-Saclay. Given the expected growth of French-speaking students in the world, particularly in Africa, the English offerings will not compromise the French programs, which will remain a major asset of CentraleSupélec.
For outgoing mobility, compulsory for all CentraleSupélec students, a special effort will be made to increase the attractiveness of major non English-speaking destinations that are currently less popular among students. Brazil in particular has experienced an increase in popularity among students as a result of CentraleSupélec team measures, and conferences, forums, student trips, etc., will be proposed for these destinations.
All of these types of mobility will benefit from the international development of the Université Paris-Saclay, which is seeking to forge strong partnerships worldwide. With its partners on the Saclay Plateau, CentraleSupélec will play a central role within the future School of Engineering.
Research and large European programs
In terms of research, CentraleSupélec has high ambitions in the field of engineering sciences, particularly in complex systems science. Internationally, its objectives are:
- to be an active member of the Horizon 2020 program for European and international research;
- to develop mobility, especially with its main partners, for doctoral students (Cotutelle in particular), post-doctoral students and teaching staff, within Erasmus Mundus, Erasmus+ or Horizon 2020 programs;
- to promote close collaboration between research teams with these partners.
Consequently, CentraleSupélec is developing an expertise for responding to international and European (Erasmus+ in particular), regional and national calls for tender, as well as coordination and management of these programs in cooperation with its partners to optimize funding and scholarships for its incoming and outgoing students and staff.
Companies and professional mobility
CentraleSupélec is extending its company partnership offer to include international companies and organizations, particularly in the countries in which it has schools, such as China, India and Morocco, but not exclusively in those countries. Through such means as projects, internships, events like job fairs, visits and study trips, CentraleSupélec boasts its entrepreneurial activity and presence on six continents. Supported by regional groups of alumni graduates, CentraleSupélec intends to create a network of partner companies abroad, a powerful network which promotes the professional mobility of its students and international insertion of its young graduates.
Institution
Beyond those activities cited above, CentraleSupélec will also pursue its goal to become more international within the Université Paris-Saclay itself by:
- increasing recruitment of foreign instructors and researchers;
- developing trips abroad for instructors, researchers and staff members;
- increasing the international dimension of training programs by offering courses taught entirely in English and creating new international programs;
- training support staff to work more closely with international student/instructor/researcher/staff profiles.
For CentraleSupélec, forging partnerships in programs or networks with high global visibility is aligned with its desire to gain an international reputation among students, companies and institutions all over the world.
