Founded in 1872, Sciences Po (SP), or the Paris Institute of Political Studies, specialises in the social and political sciences, and is regarded as an elite institution due to its prominent alumni. It exists across seven campuses in France, with the main one being in Paris, France.
The Undergraduate College includes a compulsory year abroad at one of Science Po’s partner universities, as part of its three-year bachelors degree. This includes a global network of 400 prestigious partner universities, including Columbia University in New York, Cambridge, the London School of Economics, and Peking University.
Each campus is focussed on a region of the world for its undergraduate programmes: the Dijon campus focuses on Central Eastern Europe, Le Havre on Asia, Menton on the Middle East and Mediterranean, Nancy on Europe and the Franco-German Region, Poitiers on Latin American and Reims on North America and Africa.
In 2002 the Equal Opportunity Programme was founded at the university, to help recruit high-potential students from non-prestigious preparatory high schools. In 2011, 27 per cent of students were on scholarships, up from just 6 per cent in 2001.
Sciences Po’s education is multidisciplinary and multilingual. In order to train well-rounded students, Sciences Po places great importance on the practical application of knowledge, interaction with professionals, extracurricular activities and student engagement.
Alumni include seven recent French presidents (including Emmanuel Macron, Francois Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jacques Chirac, and Georges Pompidou 13 French prime ministers, 12 foreign heads of state or government, and six of the CEO’s of France’s largest companies.
