École normale supérieure (Paris): Difference between revisions

▲[[File:Cour aux Ernests sous la neige.jpg|left|thumb|The school's ''Cour aux Ernests'' under a coat of snow.]]

▲Founded to train high school teachers through the ''[[agrégation]]'', ENS is now an institution training researchers, professors, high-level civil servants, as well as 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 35 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]].

▲The school has seven departments in its "Sciences" section: mathematics,<ref>[http://www.dma.ens.fr/ DMA – Department of Mathematics]</ref> physics,<ref>[http://fip.phys.ens.fr/ FIP – Department of Physics]</ref> computer science,<ref>[https://www.di.ens.fr/ DI – Department of Computer Science]</ref> chemistry,<ref>[http://www.chimie.ens.fr/ Department of Chemistry]</ref> biology,<ref>[http://www.biologie.ens.fr/depbio/ Department of Biology]</ref> geoscience<ref>[http://www.tao.ens.fr/ TAO – Department of Geoscience]</ref> and cognitive science.<ref>[http://www.cognition.ens.fr/ DEC – Department of Cognitive Science]</ref> It also has eight departments in its "Letters" section: philosophy,<ref>[http://www.philosophie.ens.fr/ Department of Philosophy]</ref> literature,<ref>[http://www.lila.ens.fr/ LILA – Department of Literature and Language]</ref> history,<ref>[http://www.histoire.ens.fr/ Department of History]</ref> classics,<ref>[http://www.antiquite.ens.fr/ CEA – Department of Classics]</ref> social science,<ref>[http://www.paris-jourdan.ens.fr/accuei/?%20DSS Jourdan – Department of Social Science]</ref> economics<ref>[http://economie.ens.fr/?lang=en/ Department of Economics]</ref> (this section is the base of [[Paris School of Economics]]),<ref>[http://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/ Paris School of Economics]</ref> geography,<ref>[http://www.geographie.ens.fr/ Department of Geography]</ref> and art history and theory.<ref>[http://www.dhta.ens.fr/ Passerelle des arts – Department for the History and Theory of Art]</ref> In addition to these fifteen departments, a language laboratory<ref>[http://ecla.ens.fr/ ECLA - ENS Language Laboratory]</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.

▲The emphasis is placed squarely on interdisciplinarity and students who entered from a scientific ''concours'' (thus having mainly studied in their preparatory school maths, physics and chemistry or biology) are encouraged to attend courses in the literary departments. Conversely, maths and physics introductory courses are on offer for the students from the "literary" departments. The school's diploma, instituted in 2006, requires students to attend a certain number of courses not related to their major.<ref>[http://www.ens.fr/admission/diplome-de-l-ens/?lang=en The ENS diploma]</ref>