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| Motto | L'enseignement par la recherche, pour la recherche |
|---|---|
Motto in English | Education through research, for research |
| Type | Grande école (École normale supérieure) |
| Established | 1987, 2010 in its current form |
| Budget | €130 million[1] |
| President | Emmanuel Trizac[2] |
Academic staff | 528[3] |
| Students | 2,361 |
| 462 | |
| Location | , France 45°43′47″N4°49′37″E / 45.729734°N 4.826875°E /45.729734; 4.826875 |
| Colours | Red Black |
| Affiliations | University of Lyon |
| Website | www |
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TheÉcole normale supérieure de Lyon (French pronunciation:[ekɔlnɔʁmalsypeʁjœʁdəljɔ̃]; also known asENS de Lyon,ENSL orNormale Sup' Lyon) is a Frenchgrande école located in the city ofLyon. It is one of the four prestigiousécoles normales supérieures in France. The school is composed of two academic units—Arts and Sciences—with campuses inLyon, near the confluence of theRhône andSaône rivers.
ENS de Lyon's students usually enjoy a special civil servant status in the wake of highly competitive exams, providing they pursue careers in public service.[4] Although it maintains extensive connections with theUniversity of Lyon and external research institutions, including theCNRS, the school remains independent.
L'École normale supérieure de Lyon is the descendant of two top educational institutions founded byJules Ferry:
Recruiting among the most brilliant French students, these two schools used to train the professors of the Frenchnormal schools. Whereas these schools were largely regarded as meritocratic, their sisters – the eldest,l'École Normale Supérieure de la Rue d'Ulm, and her feminine counterpart,l'École normale supérieure de jeunes filles deSèvres -, which trained academics, werede facto dedicated to the heirs of the Parisian elites.
Following a reform of normal schools, the decree of February 19, 1945, granted both institutions the title ofÉcoles normales préparatoires à l'enseignement secondaire. The schools' purpose changed with the growth of the French education system. By 1956, the length of studies was increased to four years in order to institute a preparation for theagrégation – a prestigious teaching qualification. Increasingly opening up to research, they aligned their development strategies with those of the ENS Ulm and Sèvres.
As part of France's process of decentralisation, the Schools' scientific departments moved in 1987 to Gerland, an old industrial district of Lyon, in the premises of the current Monod campus. The relocated institution was namedENS Lyon. Humanities students remained in the Parisian suburbs within the coeducationalÉcole normale supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud. In 2000, this school, informally renamedÉcole normale supérieure lettres et sciences humaines, was transferred to the new Descartes Campus also located in Gerland.
On the first of January 2010, the two branches merged to become a single institution, retaining the nameÉcole normale supérieure de Lyon.[5]
ENS de Lyon is aGrande École, a French institution ofhigher education that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of theFrench public university system. Similar to theIvy League in the United States,Oxbridge in the UK, andC9 League in China,Grandes Écoles are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process.[6][7][8]Grandes Écoles typically they have much smaller class sizes and student bodies than public universities in France, and many of their programs are taught in English. While mostGrandes Écoles are much more expensive than French universities,ENS de Lyon only charges a relatively small fee (dependent on the student's income) in addition to the standard university tuition fee, even though it increased a little bit in 2025.[9] International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of theGrandes Écoles.[10][11] Degrees fromÉcole normale supérieure are accredited by theConférence des Grandes Écoles[12] and awarded by theMinistry of National Education (France) (French:Le Ministère de L'éducation Nationale).[13] Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France.[14][15]
Teaching at the ENS de Lyon is organised through twelve main departments, spread over the two campuses:
Twenty-three of ENSL's research groups have contractual ties to major research organizations, notably theCNRS andINSERM. ENSL is a member of several advanced research networks and competitive clusters, including Lyon BioPôle, and hosts an Institute for Advanced Study, the Collegium de Lyon.
ENSL retains its close links to theclasses préparatoires which prepare high-level students – previously selected on the basis of their academic record – for the competitive entrance examination that is taken after two years of pluridisciplinary undergraduate-level study.
Students who succeed in the entrance examinations, which attract some 6000 candidates for 228 positions, are known asnormaliens-élèves; those who are from France or another European Union country are considered trainee public servants, and receive a salary for their studies during 4 years. A second entrance examination is also open to students who have not gone through theclasses préparatoires system.
In return of their salary, they have to serve in public services for 10 years.
Entry to ENSL is not restricted tonormaliens-élèves. Students may also apply through a separate admissions process based on academic prowess. Thenormaliens-étudiants are not public servants, but their training and diploma are the same as those of thenormaliens-élèves.
Anauditeur de master is someone who has been admitted at the ENSL at the master level. By opposition to thenormaliens-élèves and thenormaliens-étudiants, they don't have the title ofNormalien and are just eligible to a master's degree. They can't obtain the ENSL diploma.
Students prepare the third year ofLicence, the equivalent of a UKBachelor's degree.The ENS de Lyon offers numerous courses which are conceived as preparations for Masters.
Students prepare in two years theirMaster's degree. 5 research Masters are proposed in Sciences, 36 in Humanities.
During this year, students can prepare theagrégation teacher recruitment examination in 16 different subjects.Students can also start their PhD, go studying for one year or more in a foreign country, or follow during one year courses in other subjects.
Between the first and fourth year,normaliens can also spend up to 2 free years calledannées sans solde, during which they can study other disciplines or do a long internship, sometimes in foreign countries. Eachannée sans solde project needs the approval of the ENSL supervisors.
The ENS de Lyon welcomes over 400 PhD students from all over the world.[16]Normaliens can apply to specific doctoral contracts, as long as the thesis is undertaken within a French research institution.
This list is sortable. Click on the boxes next to the attribute names to sort the list by year
| Times Higher Education – top 20 small universities worldwide | 2018[17] | 2019[18] | 2020[19] | 2021[20] | 2022[21] | 2023[22] | 2024[23] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| École normale supérieure de Lyon | 5th | 7th | 9th | 11th | 14th | 12th | 7th |
The 2026QS World University Rankings ranked the ENSL 205th university in the world.[24]
However, international rankings do not suit well the French academic system, where research organizations are often independent from universities.[25] Moreover, the ENS are small institutions favouring education quality rather than research productivity. For instance, some French universities are better ranked than the ENS, even though the differentécoles normales supérieures are considered to be among the highest French academic institutions due to their endowment, prestige and selectivity.[26]
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