École Polytechnique once again tops Usine Nouvelle's ranking of French Engineering Schools

École Polytechnique once again tops L'Usine Nouvelle magazine's annual ranking of French engineering Schools. 

With a total score of 86 points out of 100 on the four main categories of criteria used by the magazine - research, professional integration of graduates, international openness and proximity to companies - École Polytechnique is 12 points ahead of Centrale-Supélec, second in the ranking.

L'Usine Nouvelle's rankings are based on public data from the French Engineering Diploma Commission (Commission des titres d'Ingénieurs - CTI), supplemented by data from the Conference of Deans of French Schools of Engineering(Conférence des Directeurs des Écoles Françaises d'ingénieurs - CDEFI).

This year, the magazine ranked 128 Schools, although there are just over 200 Engineering Schools in France. According to the magazine, there are two reasons for this discrepancy: as in the previous year, only Schools with more than 70 graduates are included in the ranking; some Schools have indicated that they do not wish to appear in the ranking, such as Centrale Nantes, IMT Atlantique and Telecom Paris.

This year, L'Usine Nouvelle replaced its grade-based system with a points-based system. Until 2024, each School was assigned a score for each indicator, using the min-max method. From now on, a points system will be used to rank the Schools.

To explain the scope of this change, the magazine uses the example of the median salaries of the most recent graduating class, which is the indicator that weighs most heavily in the rankings: if the median salary is less than or equal to 32,000 euros, the School garners no points. Between 32000 euros and 37999 euros, the School obtains 6 points, and between 38000 euros and 45000 euros, the School obtains 11 points. Above 45,000 euros, the School earns 15 points, the maximum. This method avoids the variations due to the extremes of the min-max method, explains L'Usine Nouvelle.

Compared to 2024, several indicators have been removed, the magazine points out. Firstly, the proportion of graduates with permanent contracts is no longer taken into account, as today's job market is such that, in the vast majority of cases, an engineer will be able to find a permanent contract if he or she so wishes, regardless of their School of origin. Thus, L'Usine Nouvelle points out that this indicator is not very discriminating aymore.

What's more, induction data is highly dependent on the quality of the alumni survey, and in particular on the number of respondents. As a result, they do not systematically represent the actual eployability of graduates,” continues the magazine, which has therefore chosen to limit the number of indicators derived from these employability surveys.

Instead of the proportion of graduates with permanent contracts, l'Usine Nouvelle now takes into account the proportion of graduates with a job in industry 6 months after graduation. As l'Usine Nouvelle targets industry professionals in particular,the magazine felt it was important to highlight the Schools that are working hard to train students for these sectors, which have a shortage of talent. This information is taken from the CDEFI survey, which is completed directly by the Schools, and not from the graduate emplyability survey.

At the same time, the international criterion has been thoroughly revised. Previously, this criterion comprised three indicators: the proportion of graduates from the last graduating class employed abroad, the proportion of students who spent at least six months abroad on an internship and the proportion of students who spent at least one semester abroad on an academic exchange. Only the first of these will be retained in 2025: since the duration of exchanges and internships is not harmonized between Schools, this data could lead to biases in the rankings. What's more, this information is very difficult to verify. L'Usine Nouvelle points out that it was decided to take into account the proportion of incoming and outgoing double graduates.