École polytechnique (also known by the nickname "X") is a French public institution of higher education and research, located in Palaiseau near Paris. It is one of the French Grandes écoles,[2][3] and is renowned for its four-year[4] undergraduate Ingénieur Polytechnicien degree in science and engineering.[5] Polytechnique is known for its extremely competitive entrance exam university-level preparation in mathematics and physics or after a Bachelor of Science (Licence in French education system).[6] It is one of the most selective French engineering schools.[7] The average salary of graduates of École Polytechnique was reported at £74,000 ($115,440), highest in Europe.[8]
Polytechnique was established in 1794 by the mathematician Gaspard Monge during the French Revolution,[9] and became a military academy under Napoleon I in 1804. Today, the institution still runs under the supervision of the French ministry of Defence. Initially located in the Latin Quarter of central Paris, the establishment was moved in 1976 to Palaiseau on the Saclay Plateau, southwest of Paris.[10]
Polytechnique is a founding member of ParisTech,
a grouping of leading Paris-area engineering colleges established in
2007. In 2014 it became a founding member of the confederal "University of Paris in Saclay". Among its alumni are three Nobel prize winners,[11] one Fields Medalist,[12] three Presidents of France[13] and many CEOs of French and international companies.
Polytechnique is a higher education establishment[15] running under the supervision of the French ministry of Defence, through theGeneral Directorate for Armament[16] (administratively speaking, it is a national public establishment of an administrative character).
Though no longer a military academy, it is headed by a general officer (as of 2012, by a General engineer of Armament,
whereas previous directors were generally Army generals), and employs
military personnel in executive, administrative and sport training
positions.[17] Both male and female French undergraduate polytechniciens are regular officers[18] and have to go through a period of military training before the start of studies.[19][20]
However, the military aspects of the school have lessened with time,
with a reduced period of preliminary military training, and fewer and
fewer students pursuing careers as military officers after leaving the
school. On special occasions, such as the military parade on theChamps-Élysées on Bastille Day, the polytechniciens wear the 19th-century-style grand uniform, with the bicorne, or cocked hat, but students have not typically worn a uniform on campus since the elimination of the 'internal uniform' in the mid-1980s.
Activities and teaching staff[edit]
Polytechnique has a combined undergraduate-graduate general engineering
teaching curriculum as well as a graduate school. In addition to the
faculty coming from its local laboratories, it employs many researchers
and professors from other institutions, including other CNRS, INRIA and
CEA laboratories as well as the École Normale Supérieure and nearby institutions such as the École Supérieure d'Électricité (Supélec), the Institut d'Optique or the Université Paris-Sud, creating a varied and high-level teaching environment.[21]
Contrary to French public universities, the teaching staff at Polytechnique are not civil servants (fonctionnaires)[22] but
contract employees operating under regulations different from those
governing university professors. An originality of Polytechnique is that
in addition to full-time teaching staff (exercice complet), who do research at the École in addition to a full teaching service, there are partial-time teaching staff (exercice incomplet) who do not do research on behalf of the École and carry only a partial teaching load.[23] Part-time
teaching staff are often recruited from research institutions (CNRS,
CEA, INRIA...) operating inside the École campus, in the Paris region,
or even sometimes elsewhere in France.
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