ISC Paris: A Grande École on the rise in 2020!

With two international accreditations–AACSB and AMBA–in less than two years, ISC Paris holds four international and French rankings and rose in four rankings in 2019.

ISC Paris-backed by 50 years of history, and the relevance and quality of its Grande Ecole program–has claimed its spot among France’s top business schools.

Founded in 1963, ISC Paris is the result of the vision and charisma of one man–Paul Icard. Icard was a teacher and corporate director, most notably serving as director of human resources at the iconic Paris department store Printemps. He was also an artist, studying with the abstract art pioneer Francis Picabia. He studied psychology extensively, even writing a book on workplace psychology. Paul Icard was a multi-talented and dynamic personality. After founding ISC Paris, Icard molded our institution in his image.

Icard’s ambition was to select and train the next generation of corporate managers. He saw the corporation as living organism, open to the outside world and able to adapt to any situation. To help students grow from learners into agile professionals capable of reflection, action, and open-mindedness, Icard envisioned a curriculum in which students were most importantly entrepreneurs in every situation they encountered: in the classroom, in associations, in Student Enterprises, in their own businesses, and in every situation they could envision.

Paul Icard’s founding spirit is still a guiding light for ISC Paris, and it shines through most notably in our Student Enterprises. A unique model for higher education, Student Enterprises combine the enjoyment and creativity of student associations that students need for their own fulfillment, but they go even further. Student Enterprises also borrow from the corporate world–they have operating and governance policies, reporting requirements, and business plans. They are a unique model, because they are integrated into the curriculum as a true opportunity to apply what students have learned in the classroom–and they award ECTS credits. But the benefits for ISC Paris students go even farther–students are immersed in an environment where they grow as professionals, and where they are trained by professionals and coaches who help them solve problems that they will confront as Student Enterprise leaders: how to attract new clients, manage accounts and taxes, and how to oversee 30-60 staffers.

The international accreditations that ISC Paris earned in the past two years didn’t come by chance. They reflect the commitment and involvement of the entire ISC Paris community, in a process of continuous improvement and quality management for the benefit of all of our students and alumni.

Our improved rankings are of course related to the evaluators’ acknowledgment of this quality:

• +8 places (to 85th place) in the Financial Times worldwide ranking of the best Masters in Management programs

• +4 places (to 88th place) in the Financial Times ranking of the top 95 European business schools

• +4 places (to 24th place) in Le Figaro Etudiant’s 2020 ranking of business schools awarding Master degrees

• 4 places (to 20th place) in L’Etudiant’s 2020 honor roll of business Grandes Ecoles

+3 places (to 18th place) in Challenges magazine’s 2020 honor roll of post-preparatory course business schools

ISC Paris’ increased rankings are also the result of the school’s demonstrated achievements in international reputation, corporate relationships, graduates’ career placement, and return on investment in the program.

ISC Paris’ international reputation is notable in various aspects of the rankings, including:

• International mobility: ISC Paris ranked 73rd on the 2019 Financial Times ranking of the best Masters in Management programs, in terms of international mobility of alumni (42% of our alumni work outside France or hold a position with an international component, according to the results of the most recent career placement survey, conducted in 2019); the 2020 Challenges ranking places ISC Paris 10th in terms of the number of graduates who start their careers internationally.

• International partners: ISC Paris ranks 17th on Le Figaro Etudiant’s ranking for the quality of its international university partners (67% are internationally-accredited); the 2020 Challenges business school ranking places ISC Paris 7th for the number of students who earn an international dual degree.

International graduates: ISC Paris ranked 8th among business Grandes Ecoles on Le Figaro Etudiant’s 2020 ranking, for the number of graduates from outside France (41% of graduates in 2019).

Quality of career placement and graduates’ career paths was also a factor in ISC Paris’ improved rankings.

• Career placement: ISC Paris ranked 13th on L’Etudiant’s ranking, for the Business criterion; specifically in terms of the number of businesses founded by ISC Paris graduates in the last three years (60, the majority of which were founded in the ISC Paris incubator), and in terms of graduates’ starting salaries and salaries after three years. The Financial Times 2019 European Business Schools classification also ranked ISC Paris 55th for alumni salaries, using graduates’ average salaries over three years; note that according to the most recent (2019) career survey conducted by the Conference des Grandes Ecoles, nearly 88% of graduates are employed less than two months after graduation (67% find jobs before graduation).

Career paths: ISC Paris has 42 alumni in the renowned Who’s Who, a compilation of women and men who are leaders in various sectors in France; ISC Paris ranks 10th on the 2020 Challenges ranking of post-preparatory program business schools for this criterion;

Through the involvement of its 18,500 alumni, and long-term relationships with partner businesses, ISC Paris ranks 16th on Le Figaro Etudiant’s 2020 list of the top business Grandes Ecoles, in terms of business relationships.  Businesses and alumni are very involved and active at ISC Paris–on the continuous improvement committee, in student mentoring, and teaching.

ISC Paris is a school on a human scale, delivering programs on its Paris and Orléans campuses; ISC Paris is a post-preparatory program Grande Ecole, and supports its students on their paths to successful careers.  It is also interesting to note that ISC Paris ranked 13th among French business schools and 65th in the Financial Times 2019 worldwide rankings of the best Master in Management programs for the “return on investment” criterion; this puts tuition and fees, and graduates’ salaries, in perspective.

Many projects still need to be completed; there are many innovations still to be implemented, and the ISC Paris teams on the Paris and Orléans campuses will be working even harder in 2020 for the benefit of students, graduates, and partners.