École Normale Supérieure Totally Explained

Everything about Cole Normale Sup Rieure totally explained

The École normale supérieure (also known as Normale Sup’, Normale, ENS, ENS-Paris, ENS-Ulm or Ulm) is a French grande école. This establishment of higher education recruits its students through a highly competitive yet open, democratic system. Initially conceived to provide the Republic, under the Revolution, with a new body of teachers, trained in the critical spirit and secular values of the Enlightenment, the ENS developed since as an elite institution which doesn't deliver degrees as such but grooms France's finest to exercise high level careers, and serve the Nation. Its alumni have provided France with scores of philosophers, writers, scientists, statesmen and churchmen even of the highest calibre. Women had, for a long time, their own separate ENS. Both were merged, after some heated debate, into a single entity, with its main campus at the historical "rue d'Ulm" site.
   The ENS system and ethos is little understood outside France, although it has been copied, since Napoleonic times, in Italy, for instance. Still, it was named first university of continental Europe by the Times Higher Education supplement. In 2007, the World University Ranking (2007) ranked it only 83rd (worldwide), 26th (EU), 3rd (France).
   Its main campus is located around the rue d'Ulm (Ulm Street, the main building being at 45, rue d'Ulm) in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. The ENS has annex campuses on Boulevard Jourdan (previously, the women college) (in Paris) and in Montrouge (a suburb; ), as well as a biology annex in the countryside at Foljuif.
   Three other "écoles normales supérieures" have been established in 19th century: the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (sciences); the École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines (humanities) in Lyon; the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (pure and applied sciences, sociology, economics and management, English language) in Cachan. These schools challenge the supremacy of the ENS-Ulm. However, they make up the informal ENS-group. For this reason the ENS in Paris is often called 'ENS-Paris' or 'ENS-Ulm'.
   The École Normale Supérieure is a member of Paris Universitas, a union of 6 Parisian universities.

Overview

Originally meant to train high school teachers through the agrégation, it's now an institution training researchers, professors, high-level civil servants, as well as business and political leaders. It focuses on the association of training and research, with an emphasis on freedom of curriculum.
   Its alumni include nine laureates of the Fields Medal (all French holders of the Fields medal were educated at the École Normale Supérieure), as well as several Nobel Prize winners in both science and literature.
   As in many other grandes écoles, the ENS mostly enrolls its students two or three years after high school. The majority of them come from prépas (preparatory classes, see grandes écoles) and have to pass France's most selective competitive exams. Studies at ENS last four years. Many devote the third year to the agrégation which allows them to teach in high schools or universities. ENS-Ulm annually enrolls about 100 students in science and 100 in the humanities.
   The normaliens, as the students of the ENS are known, keep a level of excellence in the various disciplines in which they're trained. Normaliens from France and other European Union countries are considered civil servants in training, and as such paid a monthly salary, in exchange for an agreement to serve France for 10 years, including those of studies. Although it's seldom applied in practice, this exclusivity clause is redeemable (often by the hiring firm).
   Apart from the normaliens, ENS also welcomes select foreign students ("international selection"), as well as select students from neighboring universities, to follow the same curriculum but without the reception of a stipend. It also participates in various graduate programs and has extensive research laboratories.
   The professors at the ENS are called the "caïmans", and the goldfish in the pond the "Ernests".
   The fictitious mathematician Nicolas Bourbaki's "association of collaborators" is based at ENS.

Influence abroad

The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa was founded in 1810 as a branch of the École normale supérieure and later gained independence.
The ENS group has opened a branch at the ECNU in Shanghai.

Free online content

Some conferences are in free access on the "Transfer of knowledge"

site of the ENS.
About fifty books are in free access on the "Éditions Rue d'Ulm" site

, all in French.

Notable alumni

Notable faculty

Further Information

Get more info on 'Cole Normale Sup Rieure'.

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