École normale supérieure (Paris): Difference between revisions

{{short description|French "grande école" (ENS Paris)}}{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}

| name = ''{{Lang|fr|italic=no|École normale supérieure}} – PSL''

| other_names = {{Lang|fr|italic=no|Normale sup'}}, ''ENS Ulm'', ''Ulm'', ''ENS Paris'', ''ENS''

| caption = {{Lang|fr|italic=no|École normale supérieure's}} emblem

| director = [[MarcFrédéric MézardWorms]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.letudiantacteurspublics.fr/educpros/nominationsnomination/marcfrederic-mezardworms-nomme-directeura-la-tete-de-llecole-ensnormale-ulm.htmlsuperieure|title=MarcFrédéric MézardWorms nommé directeurà la tête de l'ENS-UlmÉcole normale supérieure|website=letudiantacteurspublics.fr|access-date=1 JulyApril 2020|archive-date=12024 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701061711/https://www.letudiant.fr/educpros/nominations/marc-mezard-nomme-directeur-de-l-ens-ulm.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

| affiliations = {{Nowrap|[[Paris Sciences et Lettres – Quartier latin|Paris Sciences et Lettres]] (PSL) <br /> ''[[Conférence des grandes écoles]]''}}

The '''''{{Lang|fr|italic=no|École normale supérieure}}''' – PSL'''PSL''' ({{IPA-|fr|ekɔl nɔʁmal sypeʁjœʁ}}; also known as '''''ENS''''', '''{{Lang|fr|italic=no|Normale sup'}}''', '''''Ulm''''' or '''''ENS Paris''''') is a ''[[grande école]]'' in [[Paris]], [[France]]. It is one of the constituent members of [[Paris Sciences et Lettres University]] (PSL).<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/hedu_0221-6280_1983_num_18_1_1183|title=''The Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Third Republic''|author=Robert J. Smith|journal=Histoire de l'Éducation|year=1983|volume=18|issue=1|pages=123–127|publisher=Albany, State University of New York Press|access-date=1 May 2020|archive-date=6 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206042824/https://www.persee.fr/doc/hedu_0221-6280_1983_num_18_1_1183|url-status=live}}</ref> Due to its special historical role, large endowment, and influence within French society, the ENS is generally considered the most prestigious of the ''[[grande école|grandes écoles]],'' as well as one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in France.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Karady |first=Victor |date=1973 |title=Trois Études Sur L'école Normale Supérieure |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27888250 |journal=L'Année sociologique (1940/1948-) |volume=24 |pages=223–233 |jstor=27888250 |issn=0066-2399 |access-date=3 November 2023 |archive-date=3 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103165112/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27888250 |url-status=live }}</ref> Its pupils, predominantly postgraduate students, generally have considerable freedom to structure their own curriculum and learning. Its pupils are generally referred to as ''normaliens,'', while its alumni are generally referred to as [[List of École normale supérieure people|''archicubes'']].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Small vocabulary for the use of the normaliens {{!}} ENS |url=https://www.ens.psl.eu/en/node/956/small-vocabulary-use-normaliens |access-date=2023-11-03 |website=www.ens.psl.eu |archive-date=3 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103165113/https://www.ens.psl.eu/en/node/956/small-vocabulary-use-normaliens |url-status=live }}</ref>

The school was founded in 1794 during the [[French Revolution]],<ref>{{cite web |title=ENS Cachan Bretagne – Les écoles de l'an III |url=http://www.bretagne.ens-cachan.fr/version-francaise/l-ecole/histoire/les-ecoles-de-l-an-iii-106752.kjsp?RH=1189690570769 |access-date=15 May 2014 |publisher=Bretagne.ens-cachan.fr |archive-date=26 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426041948/http://www.bretagne.ens-cachan.fr/version-francaise/l-ecole/histoire/les-ecoles-de-l-an-iii-106752.kjsp?RH=1189690570769 |url-status=live }}</ref> to provide homogeneous training of high-school [[teacher]]s in France, but it later closed. The school was subsequently reestablished by [[Napoleon I]] as ''pensionnat normal'' from 1808 to 1822, before being recreated in 1826 and taking the name of ''École normale'' in 1830. When institutes for primary teachers training called é''colesécoles normales'' were created in 1845, the word ''supérieure'' (meaning upper) was added to form the current name. In 1936, the institution started providing university-level education.<ref>{{Citation |last=Ferrand |first=Michèle |title=La mixité à dominance masculine : l'exemple des filières scientifiques de l'École normale supérieure d'Ulm-Sèvres |date=2014-01-30 |url=http://books.openedition.org/enseditions/1816 |work=La mixité dans l’éducationl'éducation : Enjeux passés et présents |pages=181–193 |editor-last=Rogers |editor-first=Rebecca |access-date=2023-11-03 |series=Sociétés, Espaces, Temps |place=Lyon |publisher=ENS Éditions |language=fr |isbn=978-2-84788-424-1 |archive-date=3 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103185231/https://books.openedition.org/enseditions/1816 |url-status=live }}</ref>

As a ''grande école,'', the vast majority of the academic staff hosted at the ENS belong to external institutions such as [[List of universities and higher education institutions in the Paris region|one of the Parisian universities]], the [[CNRS]] and the [[EHESS]]. Generalistic in its recruitment and organisation, the ENS is the only ''grande école'' in France to have departments of research in all the natural, social, and human sciences.

Its [[List of École Normale Supérieure people|alumni]] include 14 [[Nobel Prize]] laureates,<ref name="nature.com">{{cite journal|title=Hsu & Wai survey of universities worldwide ranked by ratio of Nobel laureates to alumni |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |date=7 October 2016 |volume=538 |issue=7624 |pages=152 |doi=10.1038/nature.2016.20757 |last1=Clynes |first1=Tom |pmid=27734890 |s2cid=4466329 |doi-access=free }}</ref> of which 8 are in [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]], 12 [[Fields medal|Fields Medalists]], more than half the recipients of the [[CNRS]]'s [[CNRS Gold medal|Gold Medal]], several hundred members of the {{Lang|fr|[[Institut de France]]|italic=no}}, as well as several French and foreign politicians and statespeople.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.topuniversities.com/universities/ecole-normale-sup%C3%A9rieure-paris/undergrad |title=Top universities – University profiles |publisher=Top Universities |access-date=19 November 2014 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127073722/https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/ecole-normale-sup%C3%A9rieure-paris/undergrad |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:École normale supérieure de Paris, 26 January 2013.jpg|thumb|Entrance of the historic building of the ENS, at 45, ''rue d'Ulm''. The inscriptions on the pediment of the monumental doorway display the school's two dates of creation (the first, ''9 [[brumaire]] an III'' (30 October 1794), in the oculus, under the [[National Convention]], the second, 17 March 1808), and the date of dedication of this building, 24 April 1841.]]

The current institution finds its roots in the creation of the ''École normale de l'an III'' by the post-revolutionary [[National Convention]] led by [[Robespierre]] in 1794. The school was created based on a recommendation by [[Joseph Lakanal]] and [[Dominique-Joseph Garat]], who were part of the commission on public education. The ''École normale'' was intended as the core of a planned centralised national education system. The project was also conceived as a way to reestablish trust between the Republic and the country's elites, which had been alienated to some degree by the [[Reign of Terror]]. The decree establishing the school, issued on 30 October 1794 (''9 [[brumaire]] an III''), states in its first article that "There will be established in Paris an ''Écoleécole normale'' (literally, a [[normal school]]), where, from all the parts of the Republic, citizens already educated in the useful sciences shall be called upon to learn, from the best professors in all the disciplines, the art of teaching."

The inaugural course was given on 20 January 1795 and the last on 19 May of the same year at the [[National Museum of Natural History (France)|Museum of Natural History]]. The goal of these courses was to train a body of teachers for all the secondary schools in the country and thereby to ensure a homogenous education for all. These courses covered all the existing sciences and humanities and were given by scholars such as: scientists [[Gaspard Monge|Monge]], [[Alexandre-Théophile Vandermonde|Vandermonde]], [[Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton|Daubenton]], [[Claude Louis Berthollet|Berthollet]] and philosophers [[Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre|Bernardin de Saint-Pierre]] and [[Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney|Volney]] were some of the teachers. The school was closed as a result of the arrival of the [[French Directory]] but this ''Écoleécole normale'' was to serve as a basis when the school was founded for the second time by [[Napoleon I]] in 1808.

On 17 March 1808, Napoleon created by decree a ''pensionnat normal'' within the imperial [[University of France]] charged with "training in the art of teaching the sciences and the humanities".<ref>Law of 10 May 1806 relative to the creation of the Imperial University, article 118.</ref> The establishment was opened in 1810, its strict code including a mandatory uniform. By then a sister establishment had been created by Napoleon in [[Pisa]] under the name of ''[[Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa|Scuola normaleNormale superioreSuperiore]]'' (SNS), which continues to exist today and still has close ties to the Paris school. Up to 1818, the students are handpicked by the academy inspectors based on their results in the secondary school. However, the "''pensionnat''" created by Napoleon came to be perceived under the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Restoration]] as a nexus of liberal thought and was suppressed by then-minister of public instruction [[Denis-Luc Frayssinous]] in 1824.

[[File:Façade de l'École normale supérieure.JPG|left|thumb|The main entrance to the ENS on ''Rue d'Ulm''. The school moved into its current premises in 1847.]]

An ''Écoleécole préparatoire'' was created on 9 March 1826 at the site of ''[[collègeCollège Louis-le-Grand]]''. This date can be taken as the definitive date of creation of the current school. After the July Revolution, the school regained its original name of ''École normale'' and in 1845 was renamed ''École normale supérieure''. During the 1830s, under the direction of philosopher [[Victor Cousin]], the school enhanced its status as an institution to prepare the ''agrégation'' by expanding the duration of study to three years, and was divided into its present-day "''Sciences''" and "''Letters''" divisions.<ref name="lemonde.fr">{{cite web |url=https://www.eleves.ens.fr/pollens/seminaire/seances/fusion/Le%20projet%20de%20fusion%20Ulm-Cachan.doc |title=Historical article on ENS by Pollens |publisher=lemonde.fr |date=24 March 2005 |access-date=12 October 2016 |archive-date=13 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013082001/https://www.eleves.ens.fr/pollens/seminaire/seances/fusion/Le%20projet%20de%20fusion%20Ulm-Cachan.doc |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1847 the school moved into its current quarters at the ''rue d'Ulm'', next to the [[Panthéon]] in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.<ref>Serge Benoît, "La rue d'Ulm", ''in'' Christian Hottin (ed.), ''Universités et grandes écoles à Paris : les palais de la science'', Paris, ''Action artistique de la ville de Paris'', 1999, p. 177.</ref> This helped it gain some stability, which was further established under the direction of [[Louis Pasteur]].

In 1903 it was integrated into the [[University of Paris]] as a separate college,<ref>Decree of 10 November 1903 ([http://books.openedition.org/editionsulm/1218?lang=en Pascale Hummel, ''Pour une histoire de l’Écolel'École normale supérieure: Source d’archivesd'archives 1794-1993'', Éditions Rue d'ULM via OpenEdition, 2013] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103012703/http://books.openedition.org/editionsulm/1218?lang=en |date=3 January 2018 }}).</ref> perhaps as a result of its exposure to national attention during the [[Dreyfus Affair]], in which its librarian [[Lucien Herr]] and his disciples, who included the socialist politician [[Jean Jaurès]] and the writers [[Charles Péguy]] and [[Romain Rolland]] spearheaded the campaign to overturn the wrongful conviction pronounced against Captain [[Alfred Dreyfus]].<ref>Adolphus Ballard, James Tait. (2010.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=IA0uTYod2-gC&dq=ecole+normale+superieure+great+school&pg=PA76 ''The Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Third Republic''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103134423/https://books.google.com/books?id=IA0uTYod2-gC&dq=ecole+normale+superieure+great+school&pg=PA76 |date=3 November 2023 }}, Suny Press, p. 73.</ref> The first female student – [[Marguerite Rouvière]] – was accepted in 1910, which made headline news in France and polarised opinion.<ref name="Brasseur">{{cite journal|journal=Bulletin de l'Union des Professeurs de Spéciales|title=Quelques scientifiques ayant enseigné en classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles|last=Brasseur|first=Roland|number=234|date=April 2011|location=Paris}}</ref>

The high sacrifice paid by normaliens in the First World War was recognized by the award of the croix de guerre avec citation à l ordre de l armée in 1925.<ref> 1926, p. 26).

Du fait de la guerre, se cÒtoyèrent donc a l'École normale supérieure, en l9l91919 et dans les années suivantes, des élèves d'àges et d'expériences très différents. La promotion spéciale de 1919 comprenait des mobilisés de l'été 1914 et des soldats appelés sous les drapeaux au cours des années suivantes. Des élèves reQus au Concours de 1914 ei mobilisés aussitót après, tel Marcel Déat, commengaient, en réalité, eux aussi leur scolarité rue d'Ulm en 1919. Les survivants des promotions l9l21912 et 19l31913 reprenaient leurs années de scolarité a I'Ecole, interrompues par la guerre avant I'agrégation. Les élèves des promo- tions 191ó, l9l71917 ou l9l81918 continuaient leurs études ou les reprenaient, certains

ayant été mobilisés après leur réussite au concours. Enfin, les élèves du concours normal de l9l91919 entamaient, eux aussi, leurs années d'études. Un texte de Paul Dupuy, qui fut pendant plusieurs décennies < surveillant

13. Joumal Officiel, 2l21 juillet 1925, p. ó859. </ref>

After the [[Second World War]], in which some of its students were players in the [[French Resistance|Resistance]], the school became more visible and increasingly perceived as a bastion of the [[communist left]]. Many of its students belonged to the [[French Communist Party]]. This leftist tradition continued into the 1960s and 1970s during which an important fraction of French [[Maoists]] came from ENS. In 1953 it was made autonomous from the [[University of Paris]],<ref>Decree of 3 February 1953 ([http://books.openedition.org/editionsulm/1218?lang=en Pascale Hummel, ''Pour une histoire de l’Écolel'École normale supérieure: Source d’archivesd'archives 1794-1993'', Éditions Rue d'ULM via OpenEdition, 2013] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180103012703/http://books.openedition.org/editionsulm/1218?lang=en |date=3 January 2018 }}).</ref> but it was perceived ambivalently by the authorities as a nexus of protest, particularly due to the teachings delivered there by such controversial figures as political philosopher [[Louis Althusser]]. As of now, by law, ENS comes under the direct authority of the [[French Ministry of Education|Minister for Higher Education and Research]].<ref>The decree of 26 August 1987 states that the Minister for Higher Education and Research has authority over ENS in the same way rectors have authority over universities, thus ensuring ENS's independence from the mainstream university system.</ref>

The fallout from the May 1968 protests caused President of the Republic [[Georges Pompidou]], himself a former student at the school, to requireforce the resignation of its director, [[Robert Flacelière]] and to appoint his contemporary [[Jean Bousquet]] as his successor {{Citation needed|date=October 2016}}. Both Flacelière and Bousquet were distinguished classicists.

For a long time, most women were taught at a separate ENS, the ''[[École normale supérieure de jeunes filles]]'' at [[Sèvres]]. However, women were not explicitly barred entry until a law of 1940, and some women were students at Ulm before this date, such as philosopher [[Simone Weil]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedie-bourges.com/Weil1.html |title=Encyclopedia of Bourges biography of Simone Weil |publisher=encyclopedie-bourges.com |access-date=12 October 2016 |archive-date=10 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410082544/http://www.encyclopedie-bourges.com/Weil1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and classicist [[Jacqueline de Romilly]]. In 1985, after heated debates, the two were merged into a single entity with its main campus at the historic site at the ''rue d'Ulm'' in [[Paris]].<ref>Decree of 24 July 1985 relative to the creation of public establishments of a scientific nature (EPCSCP).</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2009/12/23/lyon-fusionne-ses-deux-ecoles-normales-superieures_1284288_3224.html |title=Article on the fusion of ENS Lyon and ENS-LSH referencing the former merger of Ulm and Sèvres |newspaper=Le Monde.fr |publisher=lemonde.fr |date=23 December 2009 |access-date=12 October 2016 |archive-date=13 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013072114/http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2009/12/23/lyon-fusionne-ses-deux-ecoles-normales-superieures_1284288_3224.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

''École normale supérieure'' is a ''Grandegrande école'', a French institution of [[higher education]] that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the [[List of public universities in France|French public university system]]. Similar to the [[Ivy League]] in the United States, [[Oxbridge]] in the UK, and [[C9 League]] in China, ''Grandesgrandes Écolesécoles'' are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/4190728/Frances-educational-elite.html|title=France's educational elite|date=17 November 2003|access-date=5 February 2019|work=Daily Telegraph|archive-date=27 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727033935/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/4190728/Frances-educational-elite.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Pierre Bourdieu|title=The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=do9o-jIrzXgC&pg=PA133|year=1998|publisher=Stanford UP|pages=133–35|isbn=9780804733465|access-date=5 February 2022|archive-date=28 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928192817/https://books.google.com/books?id=do9o-jIrzXgC&pg=PA133#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[https://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2019/04/19/grand-ecoles-france/, What are Grandes Ecoles Institutes in France?]</ref> ''Grandes Écolesécoles'' typically have much smaller class sizes and student bodies than public universities in France, and many of their programs are taught in English, and while most are more expensive than French universities, ''École normale supérieure'' charges the same tuition fees: for 2021/2022, they were €243 to register for the master's degree.<ref>{{cite web |title=FAQ about International selection |url=https://www.ens.psl.eu/en/academics/admissions/international-selection/faq-about-international-selection |website=PSL |publisher=École normale supérieure |access-date=5 February 2022 |archive-date=5 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205124336/https://www.ens.psl.eu/en/academics/admissions/international-selection/faq-about-international-selection |url-status=live }}</ref> International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of the ''Grandesgrandes Écolesécoles''.<ref>{{cite news |title=FT European Business Schools Ranking 2021: France dominates |url=https://www.ft.com/content/8afb073d-2f5e-45d6-a6bd-4efc32ff3895 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/8afb073d-2f5e-45d6-a6bd-4efc32ff3895 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |newspaper=[[Financial Times]] |date=5 December 2021 |access-date=26 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Higher Education in France |url=https://global.bsb-education.com/burgundy-school-of-business/?tabs=about-us |publisher=BSB |access-date=26 January 2022 |archive-date=25 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125225700/https://global.bsb-education.com/burgundy-school-of-business/?tabs=about-us |url-status=live }}</ref> Degrees from ''École normale supérieure'' are accredited by the ''Conférence des Grandes Écoles''<ref>{{cite web |title=Conférence des grandes écoles: commission Accréditation |url=https://www.cge.asso.fr/commissions/accreditation/ |publisher=Conférence des grandes écoles |access-date=21 January 2022 |archive-date=20 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120102012/https://www.cge.asso.fr/commissions/accreditation/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and awarded by the [[Ministry of National Education (France)]] ({{lang-fr|Le Ministère de L'éducation Nationale}}).<ref>{{cite web |title=Etablissements dispensant des formations supérieures initiales diplômantes conférant le grade de master |url=https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/fr/etablissements-dispensant-des-formations-superieures-initiales-diplomantes-conferant-le-grade-de-46529 |website=Ministry of France, Higher Education |publisher=Ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche et de l'Innovation |access-date=16 January 2022}}</ref> Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France.<ref name="sociologie">[[Monique de Saint-Martin]], « Les recherches sociologiques sur les grandes écoles : de la reproduction à la recherche de justice », Éducation et sociétés 1/2008 ({{n°|No.&nbsp;21}}), {{p.|95-103}}. [http://www.cairn.info/revue-education-et-societes-2008-1-page-95.htm lire en ligne] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107220114/https://www.cairn.info/revue-education-et-societes-2008-1-page-95.htm |date=7 January 2022 }} sur [[Cairn.info]]</ref><ref name="insee">Valérie Albouy et Thomas Wanecq, [http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/docs_ffc/es361b.pdf Les inégalités sociales d’accèsd'accès aux grandes écoles] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609051916/http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/docs_ffc/es361b.pdf |date=9 June 2021 }} (2003), [[INSEE]]</ref>

[[File:ENS Ulm cour Ernests DSC00106.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Quadrangle (architecture)|quadrangle]] at the main ENS building on ''rue d'Ulm'' is known as the ''Cour aux Ernests'' – the Ernests being the goldfish in the pond.]]

The ''École normale supérieure'' is one of a few schools that still occupy a campus in the heart of Paris. The historic Paris ENS campus is located around the ''rue d'Ulm'', the main building being at 45 ''rue d'Ulm'' in the [[5th arrondissement of Paris|5th ''arrondissement'' of Paris]], which was built by architect [[Alphonse de Gisors]] and given to ENS by law in 1841.<ref>Jean Leclant, "L'École normale supérieure et l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres : passé, présent et futur", ''Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres'', 1999, 138, no. 4.</ref> Above the entrance door are sculptures of two female figures who respectively represent letters and sciences. They are portrayed sitting on either side of a medallion of [[Minerva]], who represents wisdom. A formalised version of this frontal piece is used as the school's emblem.

The main site at 45 ''rue d'Ulm'' is organized around a central courtyard, the ''Cour aux Ernests''. Another courtyard south of this one, the ''Cour Pasteur'', separates the school from the apartment buildings of the ''rue Claude-Bernard''. These buildings house the administrative functions of the school, and some of its literary departments (philosophy, literature, classics and archeology), its mathematics and computer science departments, as well as its main human sciences library. The site's ''monument aux morts'', which was inaugurated in 1923 and stands as a reminder of the ''normaliens'' who died in the [[First World War]], is a work by [[Paul Landowski]].<ref>Serge Benoît, "La rue d'Ulm", p. 179.</ref>

Several auxiliary buildings surround this main campus in adjacent streets. The closest one, opposite the main entrance, at 46 ''rue d'Ulm'', houses the school's biology department and laboratories as well as a part of its student residences. The seat of the school's physics and chemistry departments, inaugurated in 1936 by [[Léon Blum]] and [[Albert Lebrun]], lies north of the school on ''rue Lhomond'', while further up the ''rue d'Ulm'' its number 29 houses secondary libraries and the school's department of cognitive sciences.

ENS has a second campus on Boulevard Jourdan (previously the women's college), in the 14th ''arrondissement'' of Paris, which is home to the school's research department of social sciences, law, economics and geography, as well as further student residences. The site has been undergoing major reconstruction since 2015. In 2017, President [[François Hollande|Francois Hollande]] inaugurated a new building on site, which is home to the ENS economics department, the school's social science library, and the [[Paris School of Economics]], an ENS project.

The school has a secondary site in the suburb of [[Montrouge]], which houses some of its laboratories alongside those of [[Paris Descartes University]]. It features green areas and sporting facilities as well as some 200 student rooms. A fourth site in the town of FoljuifVillejuif, south of Paris, hosts some of the school's biology laboratories.

The school is very small in student numbers. Its core of students, who are called '' normaliens'', are selected via a competitive exam called a ''concours'' (baccalaureate + 2 years) after a preparatory class. Two hundred ''normaliens'' are thus recruited every year, half of them in the sciences and the same number in the humanities, and receive a monthly salary (around €1,350/month in 2018), and in exchange they sign a ten-year contract to work for the state. Although it is seldom applied in practice, this exclusivity clause is redeemable (often by the hiring firm). A small part of the students are admitted without having to pass an exam.

Founded to train high school teachers through the ''[[agrégation]]'', ENS is now an institution training researchers, professors, high-level civil servants, and business and political leaders. It focuses on the association of training and research, with an emphasis on freedom of curriculum. The school's resources are equally divided between its "Letters" (social and human sciences and literature) and its "Sciences" (natural sciences and mathematics) sections. The school's fifteen departments and its thirty-five units of research (''unités mixtes de recherches'' or ''UMR'' in French) work in close coordination with other public French research institutions such as the [[CNRS]].{{factcitation needed|date=July 2023}}

The school has seven departments in its "Sciences" section: [[mathematics]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dma.ens.fr/ |title=DMA – Department of Mathematics |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=15 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115062043/http://www.dma.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[physics]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://fip.phys.ens.fr/ |title=FIP – Department of Physics |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129040023/http://fip.phys.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[computer science]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.di.ens.fr/ |title=DI – Department of Computer Science |access-date=23 August 2019 |archive-date=5 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505215618/https://www.di.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[chemistry]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chimie.ens.fr/ |title=Department of Chemistry |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=22 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622164602/http://www.chimie.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[biology]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.biologie.ens.fr/depbio/ |title=Department of Biology |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=18 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218070405/http://www.biologie.ens.fr/depbio/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[geoscience]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tao.ens.fr/ |title=TAO – Department of Geoscience |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=16 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516075928/http://www.tao.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[cognitive science]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cognition.ens.fr/ |title=DEC – Department of Cognitive Science |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=30 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330012635/http://www.cognition.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It also has eight departments in its "Letters" section: [[philosophy]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.philosophie.ens.fr/ |title=Department of Philosophy |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=18 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218061232/http://www.philosophie.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[literature]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.lila.ens.fr/ |title=LILA – Department of Literature and Language |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=3 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503140538/http://www.lila.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[history]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.histoire.ens.fr/ |title=Department of History |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=11 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811071552/http://www.histoire.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[classics]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.antiquite.ens.fr/ |title=CEA – Department of Classics |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=21 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121170400/http://www.antiquite.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[social science]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.paris-jourdan.ens.fr/accuei/?%20DSS |title=Jourdan – Department of Social Science |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129040023/http://www.paris-jourdan.ens.fr/accuei/?%20DSS |url-status=live }}</ref> [[economics]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://economie.ens.fr/?lang=en/ |title=Department of Economics |access-date=12 October 2016 |archive-date=12 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012153450/http://economie.ens.fr/?lang=en/ |url-status=live }}</ref> (this section is the base of [[Paris School of Economics]]);<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/ |title=Paris School of Economics |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=12 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012024027/http://g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/topincomes/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[geography]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.geographie.ens.fr/ |title=Department of Geography |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=4 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104061611/http://www.geographie.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[art history]] and [[art theory|theory]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dhta.ens.fr/ |title=Passerelle des arts – Department for the History and Theory of Art |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=16 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416143458/http://www.dhta.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition to these fifteen departments, a language laboratory<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ecla.ens.fr/ |title=ECLA - ENS Language Laboratory |access-date=12 October 2016 |archive-date=9 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009115921/http://ecla.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> for non-specialists offers courses in most major world languages to all the students. Additional centres of research and laboratories gravitate around the departments, which function as nodes of research.{{factcitation needed|date=July 2023}}

The ''École normale supérieure'' has a network, known as ''Rubens'', of ten libraries shared out over its sites, which taken together make up the third largest library in France.<ref name="Article from the Nouvel obs">{{cite web|url=http://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com/actualites/20111129.OBS5574/ens-une-ecole-au-bord-de-la-crise-de-nerfs.html|title=Article from the ''Nouvel obs''|date=2 December 2011|publisher=bibliobs.nouvelobs.fr|access-date=22 November 2014|archive-date=25 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141025164501/http://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com/actualites/20111129.OBS5574/ens-une-ecole-au-bord-de-la-crise-de-nerfs.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The catalogue is available for consultation online.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://halley.ens.fr/ |title=Halley integrated catalogue of the Rubens libraries |access-date=14 February 2015 |archive-date=9 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209140241/http://halley.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Entrance to the libraries is reserved to domestic and international researchers of doctoral level, as well as to the teachers at the school, ''normaliens'', other ENS students, and [[PSL Research University]] students. The main library, devoted to literature, classics, and human sciences, dates back to the nineteenth century when it was greatly expanded by its director, the famous [[dreyfusard]] [[Lucien Herr]]. Its main reading room is protected as a ''monument historique''.<ref>

{{Base Mérimée|PA00132985}}</ref> This main library, which covers several thousand square metres, is one of the largest free access funds of books in France, with upwards of 800,000 books readily available and more than 1600 periodicals. Its classics section is part of the national network of specialised libraries (''Cadist'').<ref>Y. Desrichard, ''Administration et bibliothèques'', 2006, p. 174-176</ref>

A secondary library concerned with social science, economics, and law is located at the Jourdan campus for social science. This library has more than 150,000 books in the subjects it covers{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}. The school also has specialised libraries in archeology, cognitive sciences, mathematics and computer science, theoretical physics. A recently unified natural sciences library was opened in 2013, aiming to bring together in a central place on ''rue d'Ulm'' the libraries of physics, chemistry, biology and geoscience.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bib.ens.fr/Sciences-experimenta.15.0.html |title=ENS sciences expérimentales |access-date=22 November 2014 |archive-date=2 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102220406/http://www.bib.ens.fr/Sciences-experimenta.15.0.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.enssib.fr/constructions-de-bibliotheques/132813-bibliotheque-des-sciences-experimentales |title=ENSSIB – French record of new libraries |access-date=22 November 2014 |archive-date=14 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714182101/http://www.enssib.fr/constructions-de-bibliotheques/132813-bibliotheque-des-sciences-experimentales |url-status=dead }}</ref> The school also features two specialised centres for documentation, the ''Bibliothèque des Archives [[Husserl]]'', and the ''Centre d'Archives de Philosophie, d'Histoire et d'Edition des Sciences.

The ''École normale supérieure'' is also an institution of [[PSL Research University]], a union of several higher education institutions, all located in Paris, which aims at achieving cooperation and developing synergies between its member institutions to promote French research abroad.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.univ-psl.fr/default/EN/all/about_fr/historique_de_psl.htm |title=Paris Sciences et Lettres – history |access-date=22 November 2014 |archive-date=3 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503172308/http://www.univ-psl.fr/default/EN/all/about_fr/historique_de_psl.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In addition to this, the ''École normale supérieure'' cooperates in [[Atomium Culture]], the first permanent platform for European excellence that brings together some of Europe's leading universities, newspapers and businesses.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://atomiumculture.eu/node/33 |title=Atomium culture – member universities |access-date=22 November 2014 |archive-date=13 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100313163852/http://atomiumculture.eu/node/33 |url-status=live }}</ref> The school is a member of the Conference of University Presidents and of the [[Conférence des grandes écoles|Conference of Grandes Écoles]].

Its educational project being based on research, ENS seeks to train its students to become researchers. The main objective of the education given is getting a doctorate, and more than 85% of ''normaliens'' achieve this{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}. The students are free to choose their own course of study but must at least attain a master's degree in research. Since, traditionally, the institution does not have the powers to grand university degrees, students have to follow courses in other universities in Paris. To this end, ENS cultivates a large number of partnerships and conventions with other higher education institutions to create master's degrees which are co-presided by two institutions. ENS works closely with the ''[[École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales]]'' (EHESS), the [[Paris-Sorbonne University]], the [[Panthéon-Sorbonne University]], [[HEC Paris]] and [[ESSEC]] Business School in particular to deliver joint diplomas to a certain number of students who have followed courses shared between the two institutions. It is also the main partner in the [[Paris School of Economics]] project which it has launched along with the [[EHESS]], the ''[[École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique]]'' (ENSAE) and the ''[[École des Ponts]]''. This project seeks to create a unified Master's-level economics school in Paris.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/en/teaching-and-students/ |title=PSE – master's page |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=22 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141122120022/http://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/en/teaching-and-students/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Palazzo Carovana Pisa.jpg|right|thumb|The ''[[Scuola Normale Superiore]]'' in [[Pisa]], [[Italy]], which was founded as a branch of ENS and retains very close links to it.]]

The ''[[Scuola Normale Superiore]]'' in [[Pisa]] was founded in 1810 as a branch of the ''École normale supérieure'' by Napoleon and later gained independence.<ref name="Scuola Normale Superiore – history">{{cite web |title=Scuola Normale Superiore – history |url=http://www.sns.it/en/scuola/storia/ |access-date=20 November 2014 |publisher=sns.it |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129122537/http://www.sns.it/en/scuola/storia/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> ENS and its Italian twin have retained very close links since this time and since 1988 a special partnership has 80 ''normaliens'' going to [[Pisa]] every year while half the class of the SNS spend a year at the Paris school. During its history and due to the far reach of the [[French colonial empire|French Empire]] during the colonial era, many schools have been created around the world based on the ENS model, from [[Haiti]] (in [[Port-au-Prince]]) to [[Vietnam]] (in Hanoi) to the Maghreb (in Tunis, Casablanca, Oran, and Rabat to name but a few) and Subsaharan Africa (in Nouakchott, Libreville, Yaoundé, Dakar, Niamey, Bangui for example). ENS maintains good relations and close links with these institutions. In 2005, ENS opened a branch at the [[East China Normal University]] (ECNU) in [[Shanghai]], whose French name was changed to ''École normale supérieure de l'Est de la Chine'' to reflect the agreement, and a joint doctoral program between the two institutions was launched.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://french.peopledaily.com.cn/Sci-Edu/3487518.html |title=People's Daily Online - Article on ENS - East China Normal University partnership |publisher=peopledaily.com.cn |date=22 June 2005 |access-date=12 October 2016 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303194318/http://french.peopledaily.com.cn/Sci-Edu/3487518.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Since 2001, the {{Lang|fr|italic=no|École normale supérieure's}} internet portal, called ''Diffusion des savoirs'' ("Spreading knowledge") has offered access to more than 2000 recordings of conferences and seminars that have taken place at the school, in all sciences natural and social.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://savoirs.ens.fr/ |title=Online "Savoirs" platform |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=18 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141118220424/http://savoirs.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The school also has launched its own short conference platform, ''Les Ernest'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.les-ernest.fr/ |title=Online "Les Ernest" platform |access-date=21 November 2014 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129105432/http://www.les-ernest.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref> which shows renowned specialists speaking for fifteen minutes on a given subject in a wide scope of disciplines.

In 1975 the school founded its university press, first called ''Presses de l'ENS'' then renamed in 1997 to ''Editions Rue d'Ulm''. This press, which operates on a small scale, publishes specialist academic books mainly in the spheres of literature and the social sciences. Some 300 works are available on line on in the press's bookshop, and about 25 new titles are published every year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.presses.ens.fr/ |title=Home |website=presses.ens.fr |access-date=2 April 2007 |archive-date=21 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921015731/http://www.presses.ens.fr/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{SeeFurther|Paris Sciences et Lettres University#International university rankings}}

[[Évariste Galois]], the founder of [[Galois theory]] and [[group theory]], was an early student at ENS, then still called ''École préparatoire'', in the 1820s, at the same time as fellow mathematician [[Augustin Cournot]]. Though mathematics continued to be taught at the school throughout the 19th century, its real dominance of the mathematic sphere would not emerge until after the First World War, with a young generation of mathematicians led by [[André Weil]], known for his foundational work in [[number theory]] and [[algebraic geometry]] (also the brother of fellow student, philosopher [[Simone Weil]]). This rejuvenation continued into the 1930s, as exemplified by the 1935 launch of the influential [[Nicolas Bourbaki]] project, whose work permeated the field of mathematics throughout the 20th century. In 1940 former student [[Henri Cartan]] was appointed professor at the school like his father [[Élie Cartan]], carrying the school's importance in the field still further with his work in [[algebraic topology]]. His teaching, which continued until 1965, was vastly influential in shaping his students, who included [[Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat]], [[Gustave Choquet]], [[Jacques Dixmier]], [[Roger Godement]], [[René Thom]] and [[Jean-Pierre Serre]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/hedu_0221-6280_1996_num_69_1_2809 |title=Article on the Bicentenary book directed by Jean-François Sirinelli |journal=[[Histoire de l'éducation (journal)|Histoire de l'éducation]] |date=1996 |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=81–86 |doi=10.3406/hedu.1996.2809 |access-date=12 October 2016 |last1=Belhoste |first1=Bruno |archive-date=23 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223011737/http://www.persee.fr/doc/hedu_0221-6280_1996_num_69_1_2809 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Denis Auroux]], a famous symplectic geometer at Harvard University, is also an acclaimed Normalien.

[[File:Simone Weil 1921.jpg|right|thumb|[[Simone Weil]] attended the ''École normale supérieure'' in the 1920s and beat classmate [[Simone de Beauvoir]] to first place in philosophy.]]

One of the school's foremost specialities has always been the teaching of history, and as such it has produced a large number of renowned historians who have been important in the development of their subject, starting with [[Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges]], [[Ernest Lavisse]] and [[Jérôme Carcopino]], all students of the school in the second half of the nineteenth century who later would come back to direct it. Around the turn of the century two men who would become the founders of the [[Annales School]], [[Marc Bloch]] and [[Lucien Febvre]], studied at the school. [[Jacqueline de Romilly]] and [[Pierre Grimal]], respectively historians of [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome]], were both students at the school starting in 1933. Sinologist [[Marcel Granet]], medievalist [[Jacques Le Goff]], [[Egyptologist]] [[Gaston Maspero]], archeologistarchaeologist [[Paul Veyne]], ''[[Ancienancien Régimerégime]]'' specialist [[Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie]] and [[Pre-Columbian]] civilisation anthropologist [[Jacques Soustelle]] were all students at the school, as well as [[Georges Dumézil]], who revolutionised comparative [[philology]] and [[mythography]] with his analyses of sovereignty in [[Proto-Indo-European religion]] and formulated the [[trifunctional hypothesis]] of social class in ancient societies.

The school has a long-standing reputation as a training ground for men and women of letters, and its alumni include novelist and dramatist [[Jean Giraudoux]], many of whose plays among which ''[[The Trojan War Will Not Take Place]]'' and ''[[Amphitryon 38]]'' have become staple elements of the French theatrical repertory; and acclaimed novelist [[Julien Gracq]], whose 1951 novel ''[[The Opposing Shore]]'' is now considered a classic. Poet [[Paul Celan]] and [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] winner [[Samuel Beckett]] were both teachers at the school. [[Jules Romains]], the founder of ''[[Unanimism]]'', essayists [[Paul Nizan]] and [[Robert Brasillach]], novelist [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] winner [[Romain Rolland]] and poet [[Charles Péguy]] are a few other examples of major authors who were educated there. The school has also long been a centre for literary criticism and theory, from one-time director [[Gustave Lanson]] to major twentieth-century figures of the field such as [[Paul Bénichou]], [[Jean-Pierre Richard]] and [[Gérard Genette]]. The founder of the influential ''[[Négritude]]'' movement, [[Martinican]] poet [[Aimé Césaire]], prepared and passed the entrance exam from the ''[[Lycée Louis-le-Grand]]'' where he was friends with future [[President of Senegal]] and fellow ''Négritude'' author [[Léopold Sédar Senghor]], who failed the entrance exam. Around this same period [[Algeria]]n novelist, essayist and filmmaker [[Assia Djebar]], who would become one of the most prominent voices of Arab [[feminism]], was a student at the school, as well as Belgian writer [[Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt]].

ENS has never had a public policy division, but some of its students have become leading statesmen and politicians. [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] Prime Ministers [[Jules Simon]], [[Léon Blum]], [[Édouard Herriot]] and [[Paul Painlevé]] as well as [[socialist]] leader [[Jean Jaurès]] were early examples of this trend. At this time, quite a few ENS former students and intellectuals were drawn to [[socialism]], such as [[Pierre Brossolette]] who became a ''[[RésistanceFrench Resistance|Resistance]]'' hero and a major national leader during World War II. The institution has continued to be seen as a left-wing school since then. Later, as ENS came increasingly to be seen by some as an antechamber to the ''[[École nationale d'administration]]'', more young students drawn to politics and public policy began to be attracted to it, such as future President of the Republic [[Georges Pompidou]], Prime Ministers [[Alain Juppé]] and [[Laurent Fabius]], and ministers such as [[Bruno Le Maire]] and [[Michel Sapin]], respectively the current and former [[Minister of Finance (France)|Ministers of Finance]] of France.

* Dimoff, Paul, ''La Rue d’Ulmd'Ulm à la Belle époque (1899–1903)'', G. Thomas, 1970.

* [[Édouard Herriot|Herriot, Edouard]], ''Normale'', Société nouvelle d’éditiond'édition, 1932.

* Hummel, Pascale, ''Regards sur les études classiques au XIXe siècle. Catalogue du fonds Morante'', Paris, ''Presses de l’Écolel'École normale supérieure'', 1990.

* Hummel, Pascale, ''Pour une histoire de l’Écolel'École normale supérieure : sources d’archivesd'archives (1794–1993)'', National Archives, ''Presses de l’Écolel'École normale supérieure'', 1995.

* Judson Ladd, Adoniram, ''École normale supérieure: An Historical Sketch'', Herald Publications Company, Grand Forks, N.D., 1907. <small>[https://archive.org/details/ecolenormalesup00laddrich online text]</small>

* [[Gustave Lanson|Lanson, Gustave]], " L'École normale supérieure ", ''La Revue des deux Mondes'', 1926. <small>[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k814437 online text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140711185520/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k814437 |date=11 July 2014 }}</small>

* Sirinelli, Jean-François (ed.), ''École normale supérieure : le livre du bicentenaire'', [[Presses universitaires de France]], 1994.