Sciences Po, Paris

This university has produced some of the most well-known figures in French public life including six presidents of the republic, 13 prime ministers and 12 heads of foreign states Situated in the heart of Paris, Sciences Po is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading universities for the social sciences. The QS World University Rankings 2016-2017 ranks Sciences Po among the world’s Top 100 universities in the social sciences and #4 for international relations and politics worldwide.  Founded in 1872 by intellectual Émile Boutmy in response to the political and moral crisis in France in the aftermath of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, it was intended to train a merit-based elite for leadership and promote an understanding of the world through a multidisciplinary grounding in the social sciences. The university has produced some of the most well-known figures in French public administration, international business and other multilateral organisations. They include six of the last seven French presidents (including the incumbent Emmanuel Macron), 13 prime ministers, 12 past and present foreign heads of state, and numerous CEOs and CFOs such as Jean-Cyril Spinetta, CEO of Air France and Patrick Barthe, former president of Unilever-France. Exclusively focused on the humanities and social sciences, Sciences Po offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programmes to 13,000 students including 180 from India. Sixty percent of the undergraduate and postgrad programmes are offered in the English medium with supplementary French language study. “Sciences Po offers bachelor’s as well as Master’s programmes in English with no prior requirement of French language study. We also offer dual bachelor’s degrees with some of the world’s top universities including Columbia, Hong Kong and Sydney universities. These dual degrees are very popular with Indian students as are Masters programmes offered at our main campus in Paris,” says Sophie Collet, the Mumbai-based India representative of Sciences Po. Campus facilities. Sciences Po boasts a main campus in Paris and six regional campuses — Le Havre (Normandy), Poitiers (Nouvelle Aquitaine), Reims (Champagne), Nancy (Lorraine), Dijon (Burgundy) and Menton (French Riviera). The regional campuses offer undergraduate programmes including English taught bachelor’s programmes to international and French students. The Paris campus offers graduate and doctoral programmes. The Paris campus, sited in the heart of the city, offers an enviable locational advantage over other universities in France. It is an ‘urban’ campus comprising 17th and 18th century mansions neighbouring ministries, embassies, corporate headquarters, publishing houses, the Louvre Museum, the Assemblée Nationale — in short, most of the decision-making centres of French life. In addition to professional advantages, Sciences Po’s central location exposes its students to the strong cultural flavour of the St. Germain district renowned for its cafes, avant garde philosophers, art galleries and architecture, shops, cinemas and restaurants where editors lunch and left-bank intellectuals dine. On campus academic support is provided by a library which houses 950,000 volumes, 20,000 online journals and offers access to a wide range of electronic and digital resources. However given its city centre location, the university doesn’t offer sports facilities although students have…