The objective is to education researchers

It has become a sort of gimmick: debate on higher education could not do, sooner or later, reference to Sciences po. education, funding, governance, social and international, opening the Institute is at a major crossroads, cited as an example or counterexample. The IEP, new referee academic fashions "In perpetual experimentation, Sciences po has become the magnifying of the transformation of French academic landscape mirror," said Nonna Mayer, President of the French Association of science policy.

What is certain, is that the old lady of 27, rue Saint-Guillaume has made some headway. And that no graduate prior to 2000 promotion can now recognize its expensive school. "There is more to see!" confirms the political scientist Zaki Laïdi, Director of research and Professor at the IEP after there have been student. More dressing room in the "barge", the historical entrance hall, more first busy... Extinct, this "club" atmosphere in the bégayés rituals from generation to generation. Their place, atmosphere "University of Vincennes" tags to the walls, Union offices and stands of homemade cakes including. But the great upheaval, in depth.

Signage of places - in English! -provides a first indication that the explanation is soon found on the website of the Institute. A gas plant which testifies to the time of the explosion in its "territories", the multiplication of its channels and international ambition of this most French institution, but who is already 40 of foreign students. "And this is not finished!" provides its young Director of studies and education, Hervé Crès. Former student discovers there a geography intellectual, human and housing radically new, so to obtain a specific map: singular object in the universe of higher education, the Sciences po Galaxy is in permanent evolution...

Sciences po, there generally is "sunburn" its very Media Director, Richard Descoings, fourteen years in the manoeuvre and never bad for innovations. A man adulation or disputed, which in any case broken well habits rue Saint-Guillaume: "Richard manages the IEP in contractor", says Michel Pébereau, the pattern of BNP Paribas, who chairs the Board of Directors of the Institute for twenty-two years. "It behaves as a political man playing the proximity with the students", says the head of a Student Union, "but in matters of consultation, it is more about Frederick II as Angela Merkel!"

Governance judge

In the maelstrom of reforms which, since the end of the 1990s, has "plunged Descoings teams into a near State of" burn-out "", according to one of his former close associates, emerging small revolutions. Sciences po has been at the forefront in France very quickly stalling on European standard LMD (licence, master, doctorate). The curriculum of the diploma of Sciences po is now in five years, three previously, and the IEP comes to standardize its sector at the international level by creating a "bachelor" at the end of a third year of study which is done now for everyone, on probation or in one of the 350 universities partners of the Institute. "It is my pride," says its Director.

Spearhead in the fight against the social bias favouring the privileged classes, Sciences po to imposed the diversification of its recruitment. The famous opening to high school students of zones of educational priority of suburban is a tobacco in the media and refers today again: "It is here that the world has understood that something was happening at Sciences po!", recalled to the Institute. It is accompanied by a wide opening to foreign students and a new entrance exam, less "discriminating". The massification of enrolment was logically followed, promotions from 300 to... 1,300, and soon 10,000 students a wide variety of profiles in total, providing the IEP. "A critical mass comparable to that of Yale or Princeton", notes Hervé Crès. At the same time, the Institute went much more autonomous financial: fund-raising, sponsorship (there is even a "Chair Microsoft") and, especially, flight of registration fee - up to 12,000 euros per year, tempered by a system of scholarships - cost him provide "means out of proportion to other universities for students and teachers.recognizes a professor. The multiplication of the masters on new land (right, communication, journalism,...), their transformation into genuine autonomous schools, in close contact with the professional world, the implementation of double courses (with Paris-I, Paris-IV, Paris-VI, CET, Polytechnique, Ensae, the LSE, Columbia, Tokyo or China), the refocusing of

Parisian premises on the 7earrondissement or the creation of six campus decentralized in the province for the undergraduate college (see opposite), complete the decor.

The Sciences po 2010 no longer fits, in any case, his caricature of great antechamber of the ENA. This renewal based on "efficiency", "spirit more than conqueror, must of course to the interpersonal skills of its Director"which has one of the best networks in France ". But the medal has its reverse: permanent reforms and all have made the school "a giant machine", is concerned about internally. Many sometimes lose the thread and sometimes criticize this insatiable expansion, sometimes a governance too managerial, or the loss of identity of the institution. In this context, the grains of sand are stigmatized: one sometimes hears "channels unemployment", some point out that international students are not always for money. Employers, for their part, face not to lose a little bit, struggling to distinguish that now covers the "mark" Sciences po

Not enough academics "House."

Head researcher, the House seeks visibly even itself. "We want to Sciences po University research and selective", explains Richard Descoings. Translation: a different University in French, innovative and resolutely launched standards in international competition. With model claimed the LSE (London School of Economics). Kind of combination of the high school and University, the Institute has a position unique, comfortable, fruit of a privilege: mi-privé mi-public body, its status as "great establishment" allows him to select his students and he guarantees comfortable financing freely raising its tuition fees. A version of "butter and butter money..." On this side "Darling" of the State annoys universities concerned see the IEP walking on their beds. "It is the distortion of competition!" estimated at Paris II-Assas. "Was a little more students and is roughly the same thing as them, but Sciences po receives 18 million euros in addition of State each year, or almost 100 million every five years!" storm Laurent Batsch, President of the University Paris-Dauphine. Brief explanation: "the"Sciences po"are all floors of the State apparatus, of the UMP and PS, and are all indebted to their school", loose a University official.

Rue Saint-Guillaume, it pouts not these facilities for cultivating a singularity, since Emile Boutmy and the foundation of the free school of political science, appears to be part of the home DNA. "We are nor a University in the US (there is a large faculty), or French (on selects), nor a high school (it recruits step on competition and our size is much more important).". We are thus a lame duck in all configurations! "fun Bruno Latour, Director of studies. The cap remains original: a teaching multi-disciplinary Humanities and social sciences, "citizen", "based on the culture of doubt", allowing students to see the world "embossed". "". There is no specialized training that can be anchored in the social sciences. After, we can all! "ignites Richard Descoings.

Remains a handicap of size for the University that developed both on the international recruitment: the weakness of his academic body. Sciences po has within that sixty professors of universities, against approximately 3,000 from temporary lecturers in professional circles. A situation which interferes with its image abroad and raises issues of governance: "whole sections of education at Sciences po are not academics within them." "These are young managers who lead, it is the faculty which must be responsible for the bulk," entrust two academic heavyweights of the Institute. Management felt the wind of the boulet, but reacts in its own way. Not issue back on the rule of external stakeholders, the house specialty. But a recruitment of 30 teachers from high flight, French and foreign, is expected by 2013, and research at Sciences po (200 researchers, 9 centres, including the Cevipof, Ceri...) will be spectacularly placed at the centre of the system, following a global trend. The objective is to education researchers. A small new revolution in the microcosm. The operation has to barbarous name "Refondamentalisation", and Bruno Latour and Hervé Crès, renowned academic, appear to be the surety on Richard Descoings. Viewed from the outside, these shocks have no deterrent. Candidates for admission are always more numerous and strong rate of selectivity, around 10.