Emmanuel Macron’s rapid rise to France’s presidency was always likely to raise the international profile of his alma mater. But Frederic Mion, director of Sciences Po, where the French president was also once a visiting lecturer, is surprised by the 60 percent increase in international applications to the elite Paris institution
for 2019.
“We’ve seen increases of 6-7 percent, even 10 percent, but never this kind of increase,” says Mion, who has little doubt the applications boom is caused by the “Macron effect”, which has led to renewed interest in France from business leaders too. “This is a direct result of what the world is now feeling towards France — this specific French moment is great for business and a bonus for higher education and I am glad to see Sciences Po is well positioned for that,” Mion told Times Higher Education.
Macron — described by his tutors as an “exceptional student in all respects,” despite his “tendency to be too sure of himself”, according to press reports — has yet to visit Sciences Po since he was elected last May. If the 40-year-old French leader does return towards the end of his five-year presidency, he is likely to find that the elite institution has changed dramatically. By 2022, Sciences Po aims to move into its new Hotel de l’Artillerie campus — a 14,000 sq. metre former Dominican convent previously occupied by France’s ministry of the armed forces. Once combined with its Rue de l’Universite site, it will create a 22,000 sq. metre campus in Paris’ historic 7th arrondissement, bisected by the famous Boulevard Saint-Germain.
“We’ve been given a historic opportunity to create a proper urban campus — one that will be comparable to some of the great campuses found in New York, Singapore and Hong Kong,” says Mion. Sciences Po will not significantly increase its numbers from about 13,000 students — 8,000 of whom are in Paris, with the others based in its network of six regional campuses — but will close 17 sites to consolidate teaching and research in just four locations, he explains.
Like its sister institution, the London School of Economics, which was modelled on Sciences Po when it was founded in 1895, it is also highly international, with about 50 percent of students coming from abroad. That international fee income has further empowered Sciences Po’s long-held tradition of academic autonomy, allowing it to experiment with new degrees mixing different disciplines, says Mion.
“Only about 38 percent of our income comes from the State, which is much less than it was for us a few years ago,” he says, comparing it with other French universities, which typically receive 90-95 percent of their funding from the government.