I. School Profile

Sciences Po is an elite public research and higher education institutionin in Paris, France. An extremely prestigious university with less than a 10% acceptance rate, it is ranked 5th in the world for Politics and International Studies (2015) and 1st on Continental Europe by QS World University Rankings.

The School has produced many notable alumni in the fields of law, economics, philosophy, history, business, literature, media and politics – including the last four presidents of France (and five of the last six). Around 28 past or present heads of state have studied or taught at Sciences Po, as well as many heads of international organizations (UN, IMF, etc.) and CEOs.

Sciences Po maintains faculties in political science as well as in economics, history, sociology, law, finance, business, communication, social and urban policy, management and journalism.

Sciences Po is a member of several university consortia (APSIA, College Board, GPPN, etc.) and has developed partnerships with 410 universities, including Oxford, Edinburgh, Columbia, LSE, Harvard Law School, Peking University, McGill, etc.

II. Faculty

As for undergraduate programme, the Sciences Po College offers a three-year undergraduate programme. Students spend the first two years on one of Sciences Po’s seven campuses in France, and are then required to spend their third year abroad, either performing an internship or studying in one of Sciences Po's 410 partner universities.

Upon completion of the third year of undergraduate studies, students return to Paris for a two-year graduate program of their choosing leading to a master's degree. Programmes last four semesters: three semesters at Sciences Po in Paris and one semester away, to complete an internship or pursue studies in France or abroad within our partner network. These programmes lead to a master's degree, opening doors to a large number of career specialisations.

The Doctoral School is currently directed by Jean-Marie Donegani and includes 200 faculty members and 600 doctoral students. It was created in 1988 and welcomes students for their Master and PhD studies, in law, economics, history, political science, or sociology.

Research at Sciences Po hosts eleven research units bringing together over 200 researchers. Five of these centres are associated with the CNRS (the French National Centre for Scientific Research). The Doctoral School, with over 500 Ph.D. students, is a central element of Sciences Po's research infrastructure.

Research at Sciences Po covers economics, law, history, sociology and political science, while also taking in many interdisciplinary topics such as cities, political ecology, sustainable development, socioeconomics and globalization.

III. Rankings

For the year 2015 the QS World University Rankings ranked Sciences Po as the 5th best university in the world for Politics and International studies. The magazine Foreign Policy, for their 2015 rankings, ranked Sciences Po as the 21st best university in the world to obtain a master's degree for a policy career in International Relations. For 2014 the QS World University Rankings ranked Sciences Po 1st French university in Politics and International Studies and Sociology, 2nd in Law, 3rd in History, and 4th in Economics. In 2013, the QS World University Rankings ranked Sciences Po the 16th best university in the world in Politics and International Relations & Affairs and 30th in Sociology. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2013/2014, Sciences Po ranked 98th in the world for Social Sciences. In the 2013 Times Higher Education Alma Mater Index of Global Executives, a ranking of a university's number of degrees awarded to chief executives of the world’s biggest companies, Sciences Po is ranked 81st.

IV. International Cooperation

Sciences Po is a member of the Global Public Policy Network along with the London School of Economics, the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. This collaboration has existed since the early 1990s, but was formalized in September 2005 with the official launch of the Global Public Policy Network in Beijing, China. The partnership fosters academic collaboration among students, faculty, and research centres of leading public policy schools in several world capital cities. The network is further intended to facilitate collaboration on public policy research, student and faculty exchanges, and international conferences and forums with policymakers from the USA, Germany, UK, France, Japan, São Paulo and Singapore. This alliance has produced five degree programs with LSE, including master's degrees in International Relations, Negotiation, International Political Economy, Public Affairs, the Practice of International Affairs, and Urban Policy, two degree programs with Columbia, specifically a Master in International Affairs, dual Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Administration with the Hertie School of Governance, and a Master in Public Affairs, and one degree program with LKS, a Master in Public Policy.