The Institut d'Études politiques de Lyon (, Lyon Institute of Political Studies) also known as Sciences Po Lyon (), is a grande école located in Lyon, France. It is one of eleven Institutes of Political Studies in France, and was established in 1948 by Charles de Gaulle's provisional government following the model of the École Libre des Sciences Politiques (Sciences Po). It is located at the Centre Berthelot within the buildings of a former military health college and operates as an autonomous institution within the University of Lyon. It is the first Institute of Political Studies to have joined the prestigious Conférence des Grandes écoles.
Sciences Po Lyon has established partnerships with more than 160 universities abroad.
History
Sciences Po Lyon was established following an executive decree by General de Gaulle in 1948. In common with the other instituts d'études politiques (IEP, English: Institutes of Political Studies) in France, it was modelled on the former École Libre des Sciences Politiques (ELSP) in Paris. It is considered as a French "Grande École" or elite school and remains an autonomous body within the University of Lyon.
The ELSP was established as a private institution in 1872 by Emile Boutmy (along with Hippolyte Taine, Ernest Renan, Albert Sorel, Paul Leroy-Beaulieu and René Stourm), was dissolved in 1945 following a demand coming primarily from the French Communist Party, the strongest political force at that time, as well as other political figures not affiliated with it, such as Jean-Pierre Cot"L'ENA, miroir de l'Etat: De 1945 a nos jours (Questions au XXe siecle)";(French Edition); Series: Questions au XXe siècle. Mass Market Paperback: 238 pages; Publisher: Editions Complexe (1995); and André Philip. J.P. Cot and André Philip were both members of the Parliamentary Committee on the reform of the State. The ELSP, known then as Sciences Po, was indeed considered as an institution providing the sole Parisian bourgeoisie with a quasi-monopoly over access to the most prestigious positions in the French civil service (the Grands corps de l'Etat or high administrative bodies).P. Nord, "Reform, Conservation and Adaptation: Sciences Po, from the Popular Front to the Liberation", in S. Hazareesingh (dir.), The Jacobin Legacy in Modern France. Essays in Honour of Vincent Wright, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002 More to the point, the ELSP was discredited for having trained many senior civil servants who quickly supported and were actually the backbone of the Vichy France from July 1940 to August 1944.P. Rain, J. Chapsal, L'École libre des sciences politiques. Suivi de l'École et la guerre : la transformation de son statut, Paris, Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1963[in http://www.sciencespo.fr/stories/#!/fr/frise/31/l-elsp-vichy-et-l-occupation/ "Plus complexe est le rapport à Vichy où se pressent des amis de longue date, mobilisés dans les années 1930 pour contrer la tentative de nationalisation du Front populaire. Parmi eux, Philippe Pétain, membre actif du Conseil d'administration de l'École depuis 1934 et titulaire d'un cours sur la Défense nationale en 1938. Le Conseil d'administration et le corps des professeurs de l'École sont peuplés de maréchalistes. L'École offrira sa tribune aux thuriféraires du régime, tels Jean Bichelonne et Jean Borotra. Côté étudiants, la « corpo » est active dans l'organisation du Service civique rural" Mary Scot]
As per ordinance 45–2284, issued by Charles de Gaulle on 9 October 1945, the ELSP was thus replaced by the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de l'Université de Paris. The Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques« Il est créé, sous le nom de Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, un établissement doté de la personnalité civile, dont l'objet est de favoriser le progrès et la diffusion en France, dans l'empire et à l'étranger, des sciences politiques, économiques et sociales» Art. 1 of the ordinance 45-2284 was established by the same ordinance in order to oversee it as well as the other instituts d'études politiques – including the IEP in Lyon in 1948 – subsequently established throughout the French territory. In order to democratize and rationalize access to the senior civil service, the "National School of Administration" (École nationale d'administration) was created on the basis of a project developed by Michel Debré and Emmanuel Monick.Jacquier-Bruère (pseudonyme de Michel Debré), Emmanuel Monick) "Refaire la France : l'effort d'une génération, Paris, 1945" Otherwise, this project was not entirely in the spirit of the programme developed by the National Council of the Resistance (Conseil National de la Resistance or CNR) during World War II, which was willing to sanction and nationalize the ELSP. Was established instead a tripartite and unbalanced structure composed of the FNSP, the ENA, the IEP in Paris (1945) and the subsequent IEPs in Strasbourg (1946), Grenoble (1948), Lyon (1948), Bordeaux (1948), Toulouse (1948), Aix (1956), Rennes (1991) and Lille (1991).A tenth IEP will be established in September 2014 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and will be known as Sciences Po Grand Paris in http://etudiant.lefigaro.fr/les-news/actu/detail/article/le-dernier-ne-de-la-famille-des-iep-baptise-sciences-po-grand-paris-2846/ While the FNSP is a private foundation, the latter institutions are indeed public.
The vocation of the French instituts d'études politiques has been the study and research of contemporary political science. They are quite distinct from the other traditional elite French schools, in particular the highly specialized Grandes Ecoles in business and engineering, given their multi-disciplinary approach to teaching. All students at the IEPs study a compulsory curriculum that is highly practical and multidisciplinary during its first years and focuses on the full range of the social sciences and humanities. The IEPs, being modelled on the former ELSP, are known in the familiar language under the name of Sciences Po, followed by the name of the city where they are located.
According to article 2 of an 18 December 1989 decree on the status of the instituts d'études politiques, their mission is to contribute to the training of higher civil servants as well as executives in the public, para-public and private sectors, notably in the state and decentralized communities as well as to develop the research in political and administrative sciences.
The Sciences Po approach and style inspired many universities abroad such as the London School of Economics.
Location
Main campus It is located at the Centre Berthelot within the buildings of a former military health college, which was used during World War II by the then Lyon's Gestapo chief, Klaus Barbie, to torture resistance members, including Jean Moulin. The same buildings were also used by the Ecole Polytechnique from 1940 to 1943 after the school decided to relocate to Lyon (then in the free zone) from its headquarters in the occupied Paris.
Sciences Po occupies an area of 9,500 square meters, contiguous to the premises of the Center for the History of the Resistance and Deportation ("Centre d'histoire de la résistance et de la déportation").
Satellite campus in Saint-Etienne Sciences Po Lyon has established a satellite campus for a curriculum specialized in Russian affairs in Saint-Etienne at Jean Monnet University.
Student selection
The Heptaconcours
Student selection is based on grades obtained in the French baccalauréat (the examination taken at the end of secondary school) and at a competitive written examination called the Heptaconcours (acceptance/selection rate is currently less 10%), which is co-organized with six other institutes, respectively in Aix-en-Provence, Lille, Rennes, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Strasbourg, and Toulouse. Selected students can then decide in which of these seven institutes they will enrol.
Special examination for Chinese students Under the patronage of Christine Lagarde, IMF managing director and a graduate from Sciences Po Aix, Sciences Po Lyon along with the other IEPs of the Heptaconcours, have now organized a competitive examination for Chinese French-speaking students, who will be then able to attend the last two years of the Sciences Po academic curriculum.
Special examination centres for French students abroad
Since 2014, French students abroad have been able to take the Heptacononcours in four examination centres established abroad: Bangkok, Thailand; Bogota, Colombia; Casablanca, Morocco; Dubai, UAE. Other centres have also been open in the French overseas territories: Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe; Cayenne, Guyane: Tahiti, French Polynesia; Fort-de-France, Martinique; Saint-Denis, La Réunion.
Ranking and reputation
Ranking Contrary to a general belief, there is no official ranking amongst the various IEPs in France. This derives from the willingness of General de Gaulle and other past legislators in the aftermath of the Liberation of France in 1945 to ensure territorial and social equality amongst students throughout France.
Nevertheless, according to a 2010 research, top-notch students following the competitive written examination organized by the six IEPs of Aix, Lille, Lyon, Rennes, Toulouse, Strasbourg, tend to choose Lyon, along with Lille and Strasbourg as their first choices. Accordingly, approximately 55% of the students at Sciences Po hold a French Baccalaureate (equivalent to an A level), predominantly scientific or economic, with a Summa Cum Laude distinction. This percentage is higher than in Bordeaux and Grenoble Institutes of Political Studies.The percentage for the IEP in Bordeaux is 45 % while for the IEP in Grenoble 32 % in Such a percentage is also higher than in most of the best French Grandes Ecoles.
The current acceptance/selection rate for students willing to enter in the first year of the standard curriculum for the IEP of Lyon, Aix, Lille, Rennes, Toulouse, Strasbourg, is now less than 10% while it reached 18.7% in 2010 and 14.17% in 2013 for the IEP of Paris (additionally, the rate of the so-called international procedure for foreign students or French students with a foreign degree was up to 31% in 2012). That makes the selection process for these six IEPs more competitive than for Paris. The acceptance/selection rate for students willing to enter in the second year of the curriculum of the IEP in Lyon is less than 5% (853 candidates for 42 places available for the 2013–14 academic year).
Accolades "The IEP in Lyon is one of the most respected institutes in France and both its programmes and international connections are extensive and world renowned" the King's College of London has stressed while Brown University has praised Sciences Po Lyon for its Middle Eastern and North African studies.
Sciences Po Lyon's dynamism and international reputation was underscored by the French newspaper, Challenges, in its ranking of French Business Schools.It was reiterated in its issue No370 dated as of 19 December 2013. "Très dynamique, l'IEP lyonnais a créé en janvier 2013 un Collège des Hautes Etudes-Lyon Sciences avec l’École Normale Supérieure, Centrale Lyon et VetAgro Sup. Un partenariat qui ouvre des perspectives de doubles diplomes, comme il en existe déjà avec l'EM Lyon. Ouvert sur l'international, il propose des masters "affaires asiatiques" ou "coopération et développement en Amérique Latine...Il est en outre réputé pour ses bons résultats aux concours administratifs
Curriculum, external evaluation and international partners
Curriculum