Rankings of universities in France

There is no national rankings of universities and Grandes écoles in France, but only rankings based on the Academic major, the completion and graduation rates in a bachelor's (Licence) or master's degree, or on employment after graduation. According to a parliamentary report by the French Senate, global university rankings, in particular the Academic Ranking of World Universities, are being taken into greater consideration and have been very successful over the past decade.[1] The French government also uses the Shanghai ranking as its national ranking for French universities and Grandes écoles.[2]

Only Le Figaro, Le Parisien and L'Étudiant, based on figures from the French government's two national higher education access platforms Parcoursup and MonMaster, rank the best bachelor's (Licence) and master's degrees according to completion rates.[3][4] Le Figaro, L'Étudiant and Le Nouvel Obs also produce an annual ranking of the best Grandes écoles in business and engineering, which are only accessible on the basis of a highly selective competitive examination.[5] Eduniversal provides rankings of undergraduate and graduate degrees of French universities in some areas.

Some of France's universities also rank highly in global university rankings, with five French universities (all in Paris) ranking in the top 100 of at least one of the three major global rankings: QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings and Academic Ranking of World Universities.

French Universities and Grandes écoles in global rankings

See also: College and university rankings
University or Grande école Department ARWU (2024)[6] QS (2025)[7] THE (2024)[8]
Paris-Saclay University (includes 4 Grandes écoles)  Essonne 1 12 73 58
PSL University (includes 10 Grandes écoles)  Paris 2 33 24 40
Sorbonne University  Paris 3 41 63 75
Paris Cité University  Paris 4 60 302 152
Aix Marseille University  Bouches-du-Rhône 5 101–150
Grenoble Alpes University  Isère 6 101–150
University of Strasbourg  Bas-Rhin 7 101–150
University of Montpellier  Hérault 8 151–200
Claude Bernard University Lyon 1  Rhône 9 201–300
University of Bordeaux  Gironde 10 201–300
University of Lorraine  Meurthe-et-Moselle 11 201–300
École normale supérieure de Lyon  Rhône 12 301–400
Polytechnic Institute of Paris (Grande école)  Essonne 13 301–400 46 71
Toulouse Capitole University  Haute-Garonne 14 301–400
Paul Sabatier University  Haute-Garonne 15 301–400
University of Lille  Nord 16 301–400

French Universities and Grandes écoles in national rankings

The following rankings of French universities and Grandes écoles are produced annually:

National rankings of universities and Grandes Écoles by academic major

Law

QS Law School ranking[9]
Rank (1–5) Law School Department Rank (6–10) Law School Department
1 Sorbonne Law School,

Panthéon-Sorbonne University

 Paris 6 J. Monnet Faculty of Law,

Paris-Saclay University

 Val-de-Marne
2 Sciences Po Law School,

Sciences Po

 Paris 7 University of Strasbourg Faculty of Law  Bas-Rhin
3 Assas Law School,

Panthéon-Assas University

 Paris 8 Paris Nanterre University Faculty of Law  Hauts-de-Seine
4 Aix-Marseille University Faculty of Law  Bouches-du-Rhône 9 Toulouse Capitole University Faculty of Law  Haute-Garonne
5 Dauphine, PSL University  Paris 10 University of Rennes Faculty of Law  Ille-et-Vilaine
Le Figaro Law School ranking

Le Figaro's ranking uses eight different criteria, including selectivity on the Parcoursup national platform, the proportion of stable jobs, the median net monthly salary after a master's degree in law, and the number of university PhDs admitted to the agrégation competitive examination in law.[10]

Rank (1–10) Law School Rank (11–20) Law School
1 Assas Law School, Panthéon-Assas University 11 Faculty of Law, Toulouse Capitole University
2 Sorbonne Law School, Panthéon-Sorbonne University 12 Faculty of Law, Côte d'Azur University
3 Faculty of Law, Jean Moulin University (Lyon III) 13 Faculty of Law, University of Lille
4 Malakoff Faculty of Law, Paris Cité University 14 Faculty of Law, CY Cergy Paris University
5 Faculty of Law, Aix-Marseille University 15 Montesquieu College of Law, University of Bordeaux
6 Faculty of Law, Paris Nanterre University 16 Faculty of Law, University of Montpellier
7 J. Monnet Faculty of Law, Paris-Saclay University 17 Law School, Paris-East Créteil University
8 Faculty of Law, University of Strasbourg 18 Faculty of Law, University of Angers
9 Faculty of Law, Lumière University (Lyon III) 19 Faculty of Law, University of Burgundy
10 Faculty of Law, University of Rennes 20 Nancy Faculty of Law, University of Lorraine

Management

Grande école Le Figaro (2024)[11] L'Étudiant (2024)[12]
HEC Paris 1 1
ESSEC Business School 2 3
ESCP Business School 3 2
EDHEC Business School 4 4
EMLyon Business School 5 5
Skema Business School 6 6
IÉSEG School of Management N/A 7
Neoma Business School 7 8
Kedge Business School 8 11
Audencia Business School 9 8
Grenoble School of Management 10 14

Psychology

Engineering

* Precision for "Le Figaro" rankings : two different rankings are available depending on whether having been to a prepa is required or not. Schools which require it are often considered more prestigious. Therefore the post-prepa ranking is considered the main one.

Grande école Daur (2023)[13] Le Figaro (2024)[14] and [15] L'Étudiant (2024)[12] L'Usine Nouvelle (2024)[16]
Ecole polytechnique 1 1 1 1
Mines Paris - PSL 2 2 3 2
ESPCI Paris - PSL 3 10 30 11
CentraleSupélec 4 3 6 3
Ecole des Ponts ParisTech 5 4 11 Not included
ENSTA 6 6 2 Not included
ENSAE 7 9 12 36
Télécom Paris 8 5 7 Not included
Supaéro 9 8 16 13
Centrale Lyon 10 7 9 12
Centrale Nantes 19 11 4 Not included
IMT Atlantique 14 14 5 17
Mines Nancy 12 14 8 5
mines St-Etienne 21 14 10 Not included
ESILV 43 3* 20 4
ECE 91 9* 47 7
EEIGM 70 42* 56 8
EFREI 98 8* 33 9
ESIEA 79 19* 36 10

Politics

Challenges Institutes of political sciences ranking
Rank (1–5) Grande école[17] Rank (6–10) Grande école[17]
1 Sciences Po (Paris) 6 Lyon Institute of Political Studies
2 Bordeaux Institute of Political Studies, University of Bordeaux 7 Sciences Po Strasbourg, University of Strasbourg
3 Sciences Po Lille, University of Lille 8 Sciences Po Aix, Aix-Marseille University
4 Grenoble Institute of Political Studies, Grenoble Alpes University 9 Sciences Po Toulouse
5 Rennes Institute of Political Studies, University of Rennes 10 Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye

National undergraduate university rankings by completion rate

University L'Étudiant (2024)[18] Le Parisien (2024)[3]
University of Upper Alsace 1 1
University of Angers 2 3
Panthéon-Sorbonne University 3 4
University of La Rochelle 4 16
Panthéon-Assas University 5 2
University of Poitiers 6 5
University of Clermont 7 15
Lumière University (Lyon II) 8 13
University of Savoy 9 N/A
Champollion University (Albi) 10 12
Paris Nanterre University 11 18
University of Rennes II 12 19
University of Pau 13 N/A
Paris-Saclay University 14 7
Southern Brittany University 15 10
Jean Moulin University (Lyon III) 16 11
University of Corsica 17 8
University of Western Brittany 18 17
University of Franche-Comté 19 N/A
Jean Monnet University 20 N/A

National university graduate rankings by completion rate

University L'Étudiant (2024)[18]
University of Versailles 1
University of La Rochelle 2
University of Toulon 3
University of Bordeaux 4
University of Montpellier 5
University of Corsica 6
Jean Monnet University 7
Côte d'Azur University 8
University of Angers 9
Jean Moulin University (Lyon III) 10
University of Savoy 11
University of Reims 12
Eiffel University 13
University of Caen Normandy 14
University of Perpignan 15
University of Burgundy 16
University of Rennes 17
Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse III) 18
Champollion University (Albi) 19
University of Pau 20

Criticism

References

  1. ^ "Enseignement supérieur : le défi des classements". Sénat (in French). 2023-04-03. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  2. ^ "Le classement de Shanghai 2023 valorise les universités françaises". info.gouv.fr (in French). Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  3. ^ a b à 14h38, Par Le Parisien Etudiant Le 17 novembre 2020; À 11h46, Modifié Le 15 Novembre 2023 (2020-11-17). "Classement des universités : où se situe votre université dans le palmarès selon le taux de réussite en licence ?". leparisien.fr (in French). Retrieved 2024-05-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Tous les palmarès, classements et bancs d'essai de l'Etudiant - L'Etudiant". www.letudiant.fr. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  5. ^ "Classement des écoles de commerce 2024". etudiant.lefigaro.fr. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  6. ^ "Academic Ranking of World Universities 2023". Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. 15 August 2023.
  7. ^ "QS World University Rankings 2025". Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. 4 June 2025.
  8. ^ "THE World University Rankings 2024". Times Higher Education. 28 September 2022.
  9. ^ "QS World University Rankings for Law & Legal Studies 2024". Top Universities. 2024-06-23. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  10. ^ "Classement 2024 des meilleures universités de droit françaises". Le Figaro Etudiant (in French). 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  11. ^ "Classement des écoles de commerce 2024". etudiant.lefigaro.fr. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  12. ^ a b "Classement 2024 des grandes écoles de commerce - L'Etudiant". www.letudiant.fr. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  13. ^ "Classement des écoles d'ingénieurs 2023". Data Analysis for University Rankings. Archived from the original on 31 January 2024.
  14. ^ "Classement des écoles d'ingénieurs 2024". Le Figaro étudiant. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024.
  15. ^ "Classement des écoles d'ingénieurs post-bac 2024". L'Etudiant.
  16. ^ "Le classement des écoles d'ingénieurs 2024". L'Usine Nouvelle. 9 January 2024. Archived from the original on 31 January 2024.
  17. ^ a b Diguet, Maxime (2024-01-05). "Les meilleurs IEPs selon le classement Challenges 2024". Planète Grandes Écoles (in French). Retrieved 2024-05-12.
  18. ^ a b "Classement 2024 des licences à l'université - L'Etudiant". www.letudiant.fr. Retrieved 2024-05-12.