INSEEC School of Business and Economics


The INSEEC School of Business and Economics is a French private business school grande école and a member of the French Conférence des grandes écoles (CGE).
The school has French, European and international campuses in Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Chambéry, Marseille, Beaune, London, Monaco, Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux, Madrid, Barcelona, Abidjan and Shanghai as well as San Francisco. It was previously called the INSEEC Business School until its renaming in 2019.
Founded in 1975 by José Soubiran in Bordeaux, the INSEEC School of Business and Economics grew gradually by acquiring other academic institutions in business administration, economics, engineering, design, social and political science in France and abroad.
INSEEC Grande Ecole is the founding school of the French private university INSEEC U now called OMNES Education.
WWW Official Site𝕏 inseec_geFB inseec.ge

History

The Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business & Economics grew at a fast pace, and especially internationally, underpinned by Career Education Corporation until October 24, 2013. From a local School founded and based in Bordeaux, it has developed tiers with the American Education System via its Franco-American Business School: the MBA Institute - American BBA INSEEC Campus in Paris, which prepares French and International Students for an MBA in the United States, enabling them to obtain a diploma at the end, recognised both in Europe and in the US. Strong bounds have been created with several American Universities such as: Emory, Indiana University of Pennsylvania or San Francisco State University allowing students to dive into American Campuses.

Values

INSEEC's values, like most other French Grande Ecoles, revolve around the humanism of the French Enlightenment era and the School of Thought of French Humanism as well as the French Renaissance. As such, French Grande Ecole Educational Institutions follow principles of universalism, knowledge emancipation and Cartesianism, following the influence of the French Encyclopedists of the 17th century.
This has led to pedagogic influences into INSEEC's Grande Ecole curriculum such as the compulsory "humanist internship", as part of which students have to carry out a work placement in a charity or an association. Other pedagogic unique features of Grande Ecole and INSEEC which are typically French and ensue from the French Enlightenment: the teaching of general culture which represents a third of the first year Grande Ecole curriculum for Freshmen. Double-degrees in law, anthropology, philosophy and humanities in general is also possible via partnerships with Bordeaux University or the UVSQ.

Campuses

The INSEEC Business School has campuses in:

Academic curricula

Grande Ecole">Grande école">Grande Ecole academic features

The Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business & Economics provides provides Grande-Ecole degrees, i.e. solely Master's Degrees, MBAs and PhDs. OMNES Education provides bachelor's degree, non-Grande Ecole Master's degrees, Grande-Ecole Master's Degrees, MBAs and Diploma, as some Schools of the OMNES group are not Grande Ecoles. A Grande Ecole, literally "Great School", is a higher education institution and part of a French league of universities, which select students via national competitive entrance examinations to safeguard meritocracy and impartiality.

National competitive examinations">Exam">National competitive examinations as prerequisite of French Grande Ecoles">Grande école">Grande Ecoles

One of the prerequesite of a Grande Ecole, is to select students via national competitive examinations. The latter are well-acknowledged to be particularly stringent. While students prepare for these National Competitive examinations right after their high school diploma during a two-year preparatory programme in high schools proposing such curricula; some other students will start an Undergraduate or Bachelor's degree and prepare for the national Competitive examinations along their studies at Universities or private Colleges in France or abroad. Both pathways have their own advantages and drawbacks.
For candidates coming from preparatory classes, the French national competitive examinations are organised in pools of examinations. INSEEC belongs to the BCE pool. Grande Ecoles only deliver master's degree, with curricula which vary from 3 years up to 2 years.
The most selective will enroll less than 10% of candidates, i.e. 90% of candidates are bound to fail, not because they are perform poorly, but because a handful of students performed better, which is in itself, the principle of a competitive examination. In some Grande Ecole, it is possible to retake a Grande Ecole national competitive examination as many as one wishes, whereas some others limit the possibilities to retake the examination to a maximum of three times.

Curriculum and academic features

First Grande Ecole">Grande école">Grande Ecole academic year (equivalent to the last year of a European">Bologna Process">European [Bachelor's degree])

During the first Grande Ecole academic year, which is the equivalent of a Bachelor, an induction week will take place, followed by a typical student orientation.
Throughout this week, groups of students will have to work out a project, not obviously dealing with business and economics, which will have to be presented along with a report in front of a panel of professors. The goal is to foster group work, team spirit, break the ice among first year students, meet milestones deliverables and train student to defend a thesis in front of a jury, in an academic and corporate way.
At the end of the first year, students have to complete the "Corporate Ethnological Mission". As part of this mission, students form groups and have to draw lots for a randomised subject, which they will have to study in an ethnological fashion. The students' group will be chaperoned by a professor and will have to deliver a Thesis-like report after thorough experts' interviews and literature research, which will be defended in front of a jury during a Viva Voce.
The Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business and Economics proposes an elective one-week intensive military training with the National Active Non-Commissioned Officers School, a French military academy. This military training often takes place at the end of the first Grande Ecole academic year.
During the first year, students will study from scratch or study again the fundamentals of Business and Management until the first semester of the second academic year, as some new enrolled students do not always have an academic background in business studies. Indeed, as long as you pass the National selective examination with a successfully validated undergraduate degree or bachelor's degree, you can get enrolled in a Grande Ecole. General culture plays a prominent role in the first year of the Grande Ecole curriculum and represents a third of all classes.
Studying in a partner university abroad, or on one INSEEC's campuses abroad is possible during the first year.

Second Grande Ecole">Grande école">Grande Ecole academic year (equivalent to the first year of a European">Bologna Process">European [Master's degree])

During the second semester of the second academic year, students can specialize in a major of their own liking: Corporate Finance and Accounting, Market Finance, Strategic Marketing, Operational Marketing, Communication and Public Relations, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management. Further Specialization is possible too in terms of Languages or else. Studying abroad is possible during this year too, so is studying in another university branch of the OMNES Education group.
During, the second year, INSEEC organises across all its campuses an INSEEC Business Games too.

Third Grande Ecole academic year (equivalent to the second and last year of a European">Bologna Process">European [Master's degree])

During this third and last year, students who remained in France have a strong academic focus on their major during the first semester. During this same semester, Professor-Researchers from their respective INSEEC laboratories will teach quantitive and qualitative tools for research-purposes, in order to prepare students in advance for their Grande Ecole Master's Thesis; before the start of the second semester, during which students will carry out their last compulsory internship. At the end of the INSEEC Grande Ecole curriculum, students must have carried out a minimum of 11 months of compulsory internship and a maximum of 41 months; and must have spent at least 6 months abroad, without exceeding a maximum of 41 months either.
The third Grande Ecole academic year is also the main year for Erasmus exchanges, semesters abroad and Double-Master's Degrees with partner universities.
Since 2007, during the third academic year, the Crisis Management Night takes place, during which students are trained to react to crisis situations. Students will come to the School's campus at 10pm and until dawn will have to form groups in order to solve problems, following pre-defined scenarios prepared by the faculty. Changes to the scenario happen every hour and students must provide deliverables throughout the night, as per defined milestones. Students studying abroad from a partner university are exempted from this programme. Students from other Higher Education Institutions, such as the student magistrates from the Bordeaux National School for the Judiciary are invited to the Crisis Night.
Along those lines, as part of the main final examinations at INSEEC, a Viva Voce, in French: Grand Oral must be taken in order to complete graduation, during which every students will randomly be attributed a subject to present and defend in front of a jury. Many Grandes Ecoles use Grande Oral as part of their selective examinations or final examinations.

Agreements

INSEEC has woven a network of 183 partner-Universities in 41 countries and 300 international students hosted throughout the OMNES Education campuses every year. In total, the whole INSEEC gathers 515 international academic agreements. In 2016, INSEEC Business School was the fourth Grande Ecole in France with the highest number of students studying abroad.

Agreements

Dual Degrees">Double degree">Dual Degrees and Tripartite Degrees

Rankings

INSEEC Business School ranked 7th out of 60 universities in a ranking from Canévet & Associates, a French consultancy. The main criterion of the ranking was the employability of alumni in the top 25 most attractive companies in France.
In the table below, the Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business & Economics ranks in average 21st best Grande Ecole Business School in France from 2008 until 2022 by the following magazines, consulting companies and institutions: L'Etudiant Magazine, Le Figaro, Challenges, Le Point, Le Parisien, SMBG / Eduniversal, SIGEM.
INSEEC's worst ranking was given by the French magazine Le Point for the year 2009: 36th and best ranked by the French magazine Challenge in 2008: 12th followed by the French daily Newspaper Le Parisien in 2012 and again in 2013 . All maximum ranking values are written in bold in the chart below, for each issuer, and all worst rankings are underlined. The total amount of French Grande Ecole Business Schools fluctuates yearly owing to several reasons. First, the Grande Ecole parent organisation has been continuously integrating new members by bestowing its Grande Ecole-label upon these new Business Schools. Second, along this phenomenon, the French Grande Ecole Business Schools' landscape has witnessed an unprecedented trend of inter-schools mergers and acquisitions. In short, the average total number of French Grande Ecole Business Schools oscillates up to roughly 40 Schools, but can overtake this value. For instance, in its ranking published in the year 1999, Le Nouvel Economiste ranked up to 51 Grande Ecole Business Schools.
Other sister-Business Schools of the INSEEC School of Business & Economics, such as the EBS - European Business School ranked 92nd best worldwide in the professional ranking of world universities compiled by the French Engineering Grande Ecole Paris Mines in 2011. This ranking is based on the number of alumni currently holding the position of CEO in one of the 500 largest companies in the world according to the Fortune Global 500 ranking established by the American business magazine Fortune.

Campus life

Students' associations

Similarly to many French Grande Ecoles, INSEEC School of Business & Economics hosts more than 30 students' associations on-campus which spans a wide array of missions: charity, gourmet food, wine, sports, arts, digital media, debate, video games, to cite a few.
The students' association landscape in most French Grande Ecole revolves around three major associations: BDE, BDS, BDA following a one-year rotation via elections. Any students on-campus can vote to elect a team led by a president and vice-president for each BDE, BDS and BDA. The BDE is in charge of organising students' life in general, for example: students' well-being on-campus, discounts at local restaurants or shops around the school, students' night life. The BDS and BDA embody a similar role but will organise activities: Sports for the BDS and the Arts for the BDA.
As usual in most Grande Ecole, a Gala soirée is organised once every academic year - not to be confused with the graduation ceremony. Usually, an on-campus student association is solely dedicated to organise this annual event. At INSEEC, the election results of a BDE unfolds during the yearly Gala soirée evening.

Online and on-campus broadcasting services

INSEEC also broadcasts its own media stream: INSEEC TV, consisting in short videos about Economics, Business, Political Science, Sociology and Pedagogy, where academic experts from the OMNES Education institution or from the Research Laboratories the INSEEC School of Business & Economics can debate, share new ideas or present their latest academic research.

Start-ups and spin-offs incubators

INSEEC hosts 6 business incubators along with Junior Entreprises. A Junior Enterprise is a typical Students' founded incubating campus-based association, which business model is based upon consulting services provided to local customers, where student's are in charge of its profitability and management. The management team's turnover of such on-campus micro-enterprises follow academic years. Junior Enterprises are often found on Grande Ecole campuses, although not exclusive to Grande Ecoles.
Companies incubators such as the Incub'INSEEC in Paris and Bordeaux differ from Junior Entreprises, as their goal is not to create an on-campus entrepreneurial association in consulting, but rather to foster entrepreneurship by helping alumni and current students to establish their own start-up. Incub'INSEEC will provide infrastructures, workshops, conferences, commodities, communication networks in order to underpin students' and alumni's nascent entrepreneurial projects. Junior Entreprise follow a different set of rules and prerequisites. Unlike companies stemming from Innov'INSEEC, they are no spin-offs. They are dedicated to students in order to sharpen their entrepreunarial spirit and put into practise their theoretical knowledge. As such, students will have to carry out assignments for local customers, such as accountancy and finance audits, consulting services in communication and marketing. Another distinctive feature of Junior Entreprise: they need to pass several years of testing and audits in order to be certified by a National Organisation as Junior Entreprise. They are bestowed upon this accreditation by the French National Confederation of Junior Enterprises founded in 1969.

INSEEC Junior Enterprise">Junior enterprise">Junior Enterprise

The first Junior Entreprise of INSEEC is INSEEC Conseil on the Bordeaux Campus of the Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business & Economics, which officially became a Junior Entreprise-accredited by the French National Confederation of Junior Enterprises in 2012. Amongst its most notorious customers, it counts the French transnational company Veolia in Transport, Water and Waste Treatment or the multinational company in accounting services KPMG, Coca-Cola or France second biggest regional daily press in terms of issuance in 2019, the Bordeaux-based Sud-Ouest newspaper. As Junior Enterprises are associations, they can get sponsors. INSEEC Conseil is sponsored by the French Bank: BNP Paribas, the world's eighth largest bank by total assets.

[Bloomberg Terminal]

For training-purposes, a Bloomberg facility is available on the Campus of Paris and Bordeaux, for students enrolled in the financial sector, during the last year of the Grande Ecole Curriculum. A Bloomberg Aptitude Test can be taken on both campus too.

Paris Leadership Week

Twice a year, during the second and last year of Master's degrees students, experts in geopolitics and in management, as well as senior executives are invited to talk in English and in French, about the latest management method and trends, and latest geopolitical developments on the international scene. The impact of management on society is discussed, but also the inter-dependences of each academic disciplines. Key-note speakers are usually senior executives from SMEs and multinational corporations working in fields such as Finance, Sports management, Marketing, Business Development, Human Resources; but also management experts, consultants, sociologists and experts in international affairs.

Inter-campus debates and rhetoric contests.

Debates and rhetoric competitions are organised on-campus, but also inter-campus, where INSEEC can compete against other Schools of the OMNES Education group, along with courses in eloquence given at INSEEC's campuses.

Optional military training

The Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business and Economics holds a one-week intensive military training with the National Active Non-Commissioned Officers School.

INSEEC Business Games

Every year, students enrolled in the second semester of the Grande Ecole Master's degree first academic year will attend the Business Games, which is an on-campus event, during which students are confronted to a business case, but are free in the way they can appraise and solve it. The Business Games last a week, are not inter-campus Games and bestow the best teams in a general ranking, and according to a specific ranking too, in which the teams which performed the best in either Marketing, Sales, Finance/Accounting or Strategy will be bestowed upon a prize from a Jury composed of Scholars and Executives invited on-campus for the occasion.

Notable alumni

Alumni network

There are around 40,000 INSEEC Alumni registered on LinkedIn, and 100,000 according to the ADI.
INSEEC was in September 2016 the sixth French Grande Ecole with the largest alumni network on LinkedIn.
The three largest employers of INSEEC alumni in 2022 were Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas and AXA.
Grande Ecole Business SchoolCampuses across FranceNumber of alumni recorded on LinkedIn
1HECJouy-en-Josas57,891
2ESSECCergy-Pointoise53,687
3ESCP EuropeParis48,893
4KedgeBordeaux, Marseille44,963
5NeomaReims, Rouen44,136
6INSEECBordeaux, Paris, Lyon, Chambéry40,373
7SkemaLille, Paris, Sophia-Antipolis34,634
8EdhecLille, Nice, Paris32,466
9EM LyonLyon30,760
10Grenoble Ecole de ManagementGrenoble29,797

In the ranking 2021 of L'Etudiant, the Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business & Economics reached a grade of 4 out of 5, the equivalent of a magna cum laude in terms of its alumni network potency which reached in 2020: 58,880.

Notable faculty

With 77% of prominent professors amongst its faculty staff, the Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business & Economics received the grade 5 out of 5, the highest grade given by L'Etudiant, the equivalent of a summa cum laude. INSEEC's faculty is composed of full-time faculty/researchers, full-time faculty/teaching faculty, adjunct professors, visiting lecturers and guests professors.

Research

With originally two main research laboratories: one in Paris and one in Bordeaux, INSEEC has 5 research centres since it became the INSEEC School of Business & Economics. Full-time faculty researchers are fully employed by INSEEC's Research Institute on one of the INSEEC's Research Laboratory. At the Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business & Economics, 98% of professors were doctors and 46% of them hold a PhD from abroad, according to the French magazine L'Etudiant recorded for the academic year 2018/2019, i.e. faculty staff holding a PhD, obtained in France or abroad and working as permanent professor on-campus at least 4 days a week.
Research at INSEEC revolves around the following fields:Risk forecasting and assessment in complex environments:
  • * Governance, risk and value creation,  
  • * Finance and innovation,
  • * Mathematical models for scientific and financial purposes,
  • * Finance and economics in an era undergoing rapid global changes,
  • * Financial services, corporate governance and risk management. Social transition and emergent behaviours:
  • * Social transition and emergent consumer behaviours,
  • * Consumption in a globalised and digitalised world,
  • * Smart city sensors,
  • * International Management,
  • * Sustainability, Luxury and Hospitality. Creation and innovation:
  • * Social transition and emergent consumer behaviours,
  • * Consumption in a globalised and digitalised world,
  • * Smart city sensors,
  • * Innovative processes and emergent behaviours in a globalised world,
  • * Innovative luxury consumer experience management and emerging consumers behaviours. Smart interactions:
  • * Networks, interactions and their geography,
  • * Consumption in a globalised and digitalised world,
  • * Nanoscience and Nanotechnology,
  • * Global value chains, distribution & Supply Chains,
  • * Globalisation challenges for SMEs in finance, hospitability and luxury.
According to the Magazine L'Etudiant in its yearly rankings, the quality of research articles is categorised into 5 levels of quality:
  • 1*: the most prestigious level.
  • * L'Etudiant will take into account the number of articles published from 2017 until 2019 in the Scientific Journals ranked 1e, 1g and 1eg by the CNRS and 1* by the FNEGE
  • * The lower-tier research publications are taken into account separately by L'Etudiant, i.e. categories: 2, 3, 4.
  • INSEEC is a M-accredited Business School, according to the French Magazine L'Etudiant.
  • * The M-label means that the Business School considered is able to deliver Master's degrees of Science or of Arts and is involved in Research activities.Research productivity: The INSEEC School of Business and Economics has been bestowed upon the grade 12,2 out of 20, the equivalent of a cum laude by the French Magazine L'Etudiant in terms of Research Productivity in 2021.
  • * The criterion "Research Productivity" is a ranking criterion taking into account the number of articles and their quality published by professors a considered Business School within the last three years, in that case: from the 1 January 2017 until 31 December 2019. Those publications must be affiliated to the CNRS and FNEGE, the whole divided by the Business School's numbers of students. This criterion indicates the performance of the School according to its size.
  • Research potency / output: The INSEEC School of Business and Economics has been bestowed upon the distinction "Very Good" and a grade of 4 out 5, the equivalent of a magna cum laude, by the French Magazine L'Etudiant in 2021.
  • *The criterion "Research potency / output" takes into account the number and the quality of research articles of the last three years, i.e. 1 January 2017 until 31 December 2019. Those publications must be affiliated to the CNRS and FNEGE, ranging from category 1* being the most prestigious scientific literature publishers to 4, being the least prestigious. The intermediate prestige-tiers are ranked in descending order of importance: 1, 2, 3. This criterion enables big performers, i.e. large schools with significant Research resources to stand out in terms of quality and quantity of submitted scientific papers.
The Research Laboratories of the Grande Ecole INSEEC School of Business & Economics are part of a larger construct involving the whole OMNES Education. The Research Network of OMNES Education involves Grande Ecole Business Schools & Engineering Schools throughout several French & European Research Laboratories. The research topics revolve around the OMNES Education's core specialties and academic offer. The cornerstones of Research at INSEEC are twofold: multidisciplinarity and transversal syllabi, in order to foster knowledge cross-seeding and bridge synergies between laboratories and faculty staff. The PI-ECE, focusing on Smart City sensors, exemplifies these two pillars well.
In total, there are five research laboratories for nine campuses, which involve around 120 Research Professors. During the first year of the Grande Ecole Master's Degree, students can carry out an introductory course in the form of a pedagogic project, in a research subject of their own liking amongst the INSEEC research specialities, where the-said students will be chaperoned by a Professor Researcher during several weeks. The final project will have to be defended in front of a panel of INSEEC's researchers and professors during a Viva Voce, including the submission of a report written in a research article fashion. The same year, in other words in the run-up of the final Grande Ecole year, students are also trained by Professor Researchers to use quantitative and qualitative research tools in order to carry out and analyse as well as defend their Master's Thesis in front of a Jury, as part of the Grande Ecole final Viva Voce, which takes place along the so-called Grand Oral.

Accreditation and memberships

The INSEEC School of Business and Economics is AMBA-accredited and a member of Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). It has received accreditation from the Union of Independent Grandes Écoles, EFMD, VISA, DD-RS, CEF DG, the latter enables French business schools via the decree number 2001–295 on April 4, 2001, to be accredited as a master's degree-level higher education institution.