IAE de Paris - University

IAE de Paris stands out for its focus on Executive Education – 80% of our students are business professionals seeking to gain an in-depth knowledge of management theory or to update their skills with the latest tools & techniques by studying part-time.

We also provide a full range of graduate business and management programs, with general (Bachelor, MBAs) and research-based (Master of Decision Science and Risk Management, Master of Applied Organization) curriculums, or with a more specialized focus (Master of Control-Auditing, Master of Finance, Master of Marketing and Commercial Practices, Master of Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility).

Our international programs, taught in Paris and thirteen other countries, are a reflection of our school’s global outlook, as are the 842 international students we welcome each year, and the close network of partnerships we have developed with foreign universities. At our school in Paris, conferences are held throughout the year by visiting professors and business executives from all over the world, and our faculty members regularly teach courses abroad in both English and French.

Essential to our mission as both a top-class provider of business education and a dynamic research institution is the quality of our faculty, who bring their wealth of expertise and knowledge to life for our students through the use of the case-study method of teaching. In terms of research, IAE’s applied focus has given rise to extended collaboration with corporate partners, which is today structured through our four research groups. Along with the IAE de Paris doctoral school, these groups strive to produce results which are relevant to organizational practice and contribute to academic knowledge.

As a non-profit organization belonging to a public university, we pride ourselves on bridging the gap between a top-class academic education and the international world of business.

IAE was founded in 1956 by then State Director of Higher Education Gaston Berger and Professor Robert Goetz. The 1950s were the start of the boom years – known in French as the Trente glorieuses – but in France management was not yet a university discipline. Meanwhile, American business schools attached to universities were churning out top managers to fire their economy. The objective of IAE was therefore to offer academic management education in support of professional know-how, and to bring the university closer to the business world.

Its sole founding course, the Certificate of Aptitude in Business Administration, was designed to provide management expertise as an additional skill to graduates of other fields. The variety of students’ profiles – engineers, lawyers, arts and science graduates – has always been a distinctive feature and strength of IAE.

Over the last few decades, economic globalization has changed the career prospects of IAE students, which have gone from basically national to entirely global. Consequently, in the early 1990s IAE de Paris began developing its international activities with faculty exchanges which, as in many academic institutions, often lead to contacts with foreign partners that generate collaboration in both research and teaching.

Since the early 2000s, IAE de Paris has sought to make it possible for its large proportion of currently employed executive education students to benefit from an international experience. The winning formula has proven to be short international seminars of between two days and two weeks duration, generally organized in collaboration with a foreign partner university. IAE de Paris also welcomes foreign groups, usually from partner universities, for similar seminars in Paris.

Another key initiative of IAE de Paris was the development of offshore degree programs, begun fifteen years ago. Various executive programs are now offered in partnership with foreign higher education institutions. The International Paris MBA programs were developed jointly with the University of Paris-Dauphine and a foreign partner, with content related to the Master d’Administration des Entreprise taught at IAE de Paris.

In 2005, the institutional reform of higher education streamlined the hierarchy of French degrees (LMD or Bachelor-Master-Doctorate) and put them on a par with the rest of Europe and with many other countries worldwide. By ensuring that the level of the degrees offered at IAE de Paris became transparent to both foreign students and foreign recruiters, this opened the way for international expansion.

IAE de Paris is a business school committed to the personal development of individuals whatever their origins, selected on the basis of their potential and the academic or professional path they have followed.

IAE de Paris strives to favor the democratization of high-level responsibilities in business through an original concept of education, which includes dual skill-sets, apprenticeships, and executive education.

This approach is anchored in a non-deterministic vision of individuals’ careers, which holds that potential and merit are the determinants of lifelong development.

Founded on the values of progress, IAE de Paris’s research and education programs contribute to the development of knowledge and its practical application in organizations.

In this way, IAE de Paris meets the needs of students, French and international companies, and society at large by producing graduates with a solid management culture who are in synch with the modern world and concerned with the common good.

The strategic vision of IAE de Paris is to be recognized as a general graduate business school with a particular expertise in part-time Master’s programs for currently employed executives. It strives for international recognition for the quality of its Executive Education, whether the courses take place in Paris or elsewhere in the world.

IAE de Paris is a public higher education institution affiliated with the University of Paris I Sorbonne. In France, working in the public service is a deliberate choice, and this is reflected in our faculty and staff members’ strong attachment to the institution, sincere commitment to the social promotion of students, independent involvement in research activities, and sense of honor associated with the work accomplished. These are the values that drive IAE de Paris, contributing to its singularity and to its success in a competitive environment.