École supérieure d'électricité, commonly known as Supélec (), was a French graduate school of engineering. It was one of the most prestigious grande écoles in France in the field of electrical engineering, energy and information sciences. In 2015, Supélec merged with École Centrale Paris and became CentraleSupélec, a constituent member of Université Paris-Saclay.
Founded in 1894 and initially located in the 15th district of Paris, it was moved to Gif-sur-Yvette in 1975. Since then, two more campuses have been established, in Rennes in 1972 and Metz in 1985. It is a member of Top Industrial Managers for Europe (TIME) network. It is also a member of the CESAER Association and n+i Engineering Studies.
History
Supélec was founded in 1894 by Eleuthère Mascart. He was elected: Perpetual Member and Secretary of the Académie des Sciences and Foreign Member of the British Royal Society, Professor at the Collège de France, and won the Bordin Prize in 1866 and the Grand prix de l'Académie des sciences in 1874.
From 2004 to 2013, the director of Supélec was Alain Bravo. Hervé Biausser became the director on 1 September 2013, while keeping the directorship of Centrale Paris.
Historically the goal of Supélec was to educate engineers for the then booming electrical industry.
Location
Supélec was originally based in Rue de Staël, 15th district of Paris. Then it moved to Malakoff, close to Porte de Vanves and to Gif-sur-Yvette in 1975 where the main campus is currently located. A second campus was established in Rennes in 1972 and a third one in Metz in 1985.
Academics
Demographics
The student body consists of 1,975 graduate students spread over Supélec's three campuses, and 780 full-time and part-time faculty (October 2009). As is historically true of engineering institutions, female enrollment at Supélec is low, with about three times as many male students as female students. However, this is slowly changing due to the school's outreach programs to encourage more female high school students to consider careers in science and engineering. These include the "Ingénieure: un avenir au féminin" program. In 2008, 25% of graduates were foreign students, coming from 22 countries.
Funding
Supélec was a private non-profit institution (Association loi 1901) under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Industry. In 2008, Supélec's revenue amounted to €35 million, with 48% of that amount from the state, 24% from research contracts and 5% from tuition and fees. About 25% of the school's expenses went to research (€8.6 million) and 68% to faculty and staff.
Rankings
Supélec was consistently ranked well; it has remained in the top five engineering schools in France. In 2013, L'Etudiant ranked Supélec the fourth engineering school in France (ex aequo), and according to salary surveys its graduates are among the highest paid of all French graduates.
Curriculum
Education at Supélec is multidipliscinary and typically lasts three to four years. During the first two years, students are required to take classes in science (statistics, probability, quantum mechanics,...), in engineering (computer programming, signal processing,...) and in social sciences (economics, foreign languages,...), and can choose elective classes as numerous as varied (arts, superconductivity, sustainable development, finance, biology, psychology,...). For their third year, students choose a major in a specific field among fifteen for half the course, and the second half is devoted to research and development activities in the form of laboratory studies, project work, industrial research contracts.
Students are also warmly encouraged to spend at least six months abroad in one of Supélec's 70 partner universities, or they can spend two years abroad instead of their third year at Supélec and graduate from both Supélec and the partner university. In 2008, 40% of graduates have obtained double degrees. Partners include world leading institutions like MIT, Columbia and Georgia Tech in the US, Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College and UCL in the UK.
After graduation, graduates find employment in diverse areas including Engineering, R&D, Consulting and Banking, or pursue PhD studies.