With the political mood in the US and UK growing more introspective, French business schools are sensing an opportunity to attract more international students to their campuses at home and abroad.
In recent years the focus of French business schools has been on consolidation and mergers, such as those that created both Neoma and Kedge in 2013. Some have been more successful than others and the trend may be coming to an end. “I don’t think we will see many more mergers,” says Jean-Michel Blanquer, dean of Essec. “The mergers that made sense have been done.”
This return to greater stability at home is one factor encouraging some French schools to look outward. There is also pressure from government. French higher education lags behind the world’s main providers of general transnational education — the US, UK and Australia — and a recent report by government-affiliated think-tank France Stratégie, highlighted an “urgent” need for a new approach.