École nationale des ponts et chaussées
École nationale des ponts et chaussées, also nicknamed Ponts, formerly known as École des Ponts ParisTech, is a grande école in the field of science, engineering and technology, of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, a public research university. Founded in 1747 by Daniel-Charles Trudaine, it is one of the oldest and one of the most prestigious French Grandes Écoles.
Historically, its primary mission has been to train engineering officials and civil engineers but the school now offers a wide-ranging education including computer science, applied mathematics, civil engineering, mechanics, finance, economics, innovation, urban studies, environment and transport engineering. École des Ponts is today largely international: 43% of its students obtain a double degree abroad, and 30% of an ingénieur cohort is foreign.
It is headquartered in Marne-la-Vallée, France, and was a founding member of ParisTech and of the Paris School of Economics. The school is under the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy of France. Since 16 July 2024, the school has been a constituent member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris.
History
1747–1794: Origins
Following the creation of the Corps of Bridges and Roads in 1716, the King's Council decided in 1747 to found a specific training course for the state's engineers, as École royale des ponts et chaussées. In 1775, the school took its current name as École nationale des ponts et chaussées, by Daniel-Charles Trudaine, in a moment when the state decided to set up a progressive and efficient control of the building of roads, bridges and canals, and in the training of civil engineers.The school's first director, from 1747 until 1794, was Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, engineer, civil service administrator and a contributor to the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Without lecturer, fifty students, initially taught themselves geometry, algebra, mechanics and hydraulics. Visits of building sites, cooperations with scientists and engineers and participation to the drawing of the map of the kingdom used to complete their training, which was usually four to twelve years long.
1794–1848: Growth and industrialisation
During the First French Empire run by Napoleon I from 1804 to 1814, a number of members of the Corps of Bridges and Roads took part in the reconstruction of the French road network that had not been maintained during the Revolution, and in large infrastructural developments, notably hydraulic projects. Under the orders of the emperor, French scientist Gaspard Riche de Prony, second director of the school from 1798 to 1839, adapts the education provided by the school in order to improve the training of future civil engineers, whose purpose is to rebuild the major infrastructures of the country: roads, bridges, but also administrative buildings, barracks and fortifications. Prony is now considered as a historical and influential figure of the school. During the twenty years that followed the First Empire, the experience of the faculty and the alumni involved in the reconstruction strongly influenced its training methods and internal organisation. In 1831, the school opens its first laboratory, which aims at concentrating the talents and experiences of the country's best civil engineers. The school also gradually becomes a place of reflection and debates for urban planning.1848–1945: The big works
As a new step in the evolution of the school, the decree of 1851 insists on the organisation of the courses, the writing of an annual schedule, the quality of the faculty, and the control of the students' works. For the first time in its history, the school opens its doors to a larger public. At this time, in France, the remarkable development of transports, roads, bridges and canals is strongly influenced by engineers from the school, who deeply modernised the country by creating the large traffic networks, admired in several European countries.1945–1997: Modernisation
After the Second World War, the school focused on developing the link between economics and engineering. As civil engineering was requiring increasingly higher financial investments, the state needed engineers to be able to understand the economic situation of post-war Europe. From then on, the program of the school had three different aspects: scientific and technic, social, and economic.Gradually, the number of admitted students increased in order to provide both the Corps of Bridges and Roads and the private sector highly trained young engineers. At the time, technical progress and considerable development of sciences and techniques used in building, urbanism and the protection of the environment imposed a change of strategy in the training programme. More specialisations were progressively created and the overall programme was adapted to national issues.
Academics
École des Ponts is a Grande école, a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the French public university system. Similar to the Ivy League in the United States, Oxbridge in the UK, and C9 League in China, Grandes Écoles are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process. Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France.Although they are more expensive than public universities in France, Grandes Écoles typically have much smaller class sizes and student bodies, and many of their programs are taught in English. International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of the Grandes Écoles. Many of the top ranked institutes and business schools in Europe are members of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles , as is École des Ponts; out of the 250 business schools in France, only 39 are CGE members.
École des Ponts offers high-level programmes in an extensive range of fields, with traditional competences in mathematics, computer science, civil engineering, mechanics, economics, finance, environment, transport, town & regional planning, logistics and innovation. It is among the schools called "généralistes", which means that students receive a broad, management-oriented and non-specialised education. The school also offers specialized/research masters and PhDs, and a design school, with programmes in innovation and startup creation. Degrees from École des Ponts are accredited by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles and awarded by the Ministry of National Education . Its Business School is further accredited by the elite international business school accrediting organizations and it holds double accreditation: The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and Association of MBAs
Ranking
National ranking| Name | Year | Rank |
| DAUR Rankings | 2022 | 3 |
Times Higher Education ranked these Grandes Écoles in the top 10 worldwide :
| Times Higher Education – top 10 small universities worldwide | 2019 | 2021 |
| École des Ponts ParisTech | 9th | 7th |
The ''Ingénieur'' programme
Curriculum
This undergraduate-graduate engineering programme is the original and main programme offered by the school. It is quite different from typical university or college studies and specific to the French system of Grandes Écoles. The Ingénieur degree of École des Ponts – the Diplôme d'Ingénieur – is equivalent to a Master of Science.Admissions
Admissions for engineering students is mostly done after scientific preparatory classes through the highly selective "Mines-Ponts" competitive entrance exams. Some places are open each year to French and foreign university students as well as BCPST scientific preparatory classesÉcole des Ponts recruits among the top 4% of the students in preparatory classes.
Master's degrees
École des Ponts offers a wide range of master's degrees, drawing on its historical domains of expertise. Some of them are in partnership with other high-profile institutions.Applied Mathematics option
- Mathematics for finance and data
- Mathematics, Vision, Learning
- Modelling, Analysis, Simulation
- Operational Research
- Probabilities and Random Models
- Energy Transition At Local Scale
- Multiscale Approaches for Materials and Structures
- Durability of Materials and Structures
- Mechanics of Soils, Rocks, and Structures in their Environment
- Materials Science for Sustainable Construction
- Transportation, Mobility
- Transportation and Sustainable Development
- Decommissioning and Waste Management
- Environmental Economics
- Economics of Energy
- Prospective Modeling
- Transport and Mobility Economics
- Analysis and Political Economy
- Public Policies and Development
- MSc – Master of Science Sustainable Impact of Analysis