École Normale Supérieure – PSL offers a top-notch education in research, science, and humanities in collaboration with the leading international universities.
This program of education through research is also part of the PSL graduate programs. Every ENS student receives individual mentoring and develops their own personal course of study, in which interdisciplinarity is encouraged. This academic freedom is paired with a very flexible approach to organizing the curriculum, students’ plans and preferences can be integrated through laboratory internships, study abroad, and field experiences in public organizations, companies, or non-profits.
ENS-PSL is a world-renowned research university that is unparalleled in the quality of its students, the education it offers, and the coexistence of highly varied disciplines within its walls. The ENS campuses in the heart of Paris provide an immensely rich intellectual and scientific environment, boasting daily contact with the most advanced research and a connection to international university life.
All students at ENS build their own course of study to reflect their own interests and plans. At the same time, this “à la carte” education is constrained by the requirements of the ENS diploma, which include students earning units in one or more disciplines outside of their major. Broadening experiences are also central to the program: these can include professional experiences (teaching internships, volunteer positions with a non-profit, internships in companies or public administration), crossdisciplinary experiences, group research experiences, international experience (teaching assistantships, research exchanges) facilitated by the school’s many partnerships with prestigious universities around the globe.
The school prepares students for high-level careers in the public and corporate sectors in France and abroad. With one of the highest employment rates in French higher education, ENS offers a broad selection of opportunities, both academic (in higher education and research) and non-academic (in companies and government positions, or through entrepreneurship). After completing their ENS education, more than 70% of students begin work on a doctoral dissertation.
The depth, breadth, and organization of fields at the school, divided into science and humanities and into teaching and research departments, enable students to explore the furthest horizons of their discipline and develop a highly interdisciplinary intellectual approach. List of departments: Humanities: Economics, Geography & Territories, History, Arts (Theory and Practice), Languages and Literature, Philosophy, Science of Antiquity, Social Science, Exploring Other Cultures and Languages (crosscutting department). Science: Biology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Geoscience, Chemistry, Physics, Cognitive Science.