HEC Paris


HEC Paris is an international business school established in 1881 and located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. Among the most selective French grandes écoles, HEC Paris offers its flagship Master in Management, MBA and EMBA programs, specialized MSc programs, a PhD program, and executive education offerings.
HEC Paris is the founding member of CEMS - Global Alliance in Management Education and holds the triple accreditation. With ESSEC and ESCP, it forms the informal group commonly referred as the 3 Parisiennes, although HEC Paris is regarded as the most prestigious of the three by most accounts.
HEC alumni include 12 CEOs of F500 companies – 2017 more than any other business school in the world and third institution only to Harvard and Stanford –, several heads of states and governments, heads of international organizations, and other prominent figures in politics, business, and the arts.
In 2017, HEC Alumni has been ranked by The Economist as the 2nd most powerful business school alumni network in the world.

History

Established in 1881 by the Paris Chamber of Commerce, the École des hautes études commerciales de Paris wanted to be in the fields of management and trade what Centrale Paris was in the field of engineering. In order to gain recognition from the academic world, the school offered lessons similar to what was taught in secondary education and few classes in management.
In 1921, the school introduced the case-based method of the Harvard Business School, but most of the lectures remained theoretical. In 1938, the HEC program was lengthened to 3 years.
Due to French corporations' demand for North American style management education, at the end of the 1950s, the case-based method was generalized and a one-year classe préparatoire was created to prepare for the entrance examination, which had become more difficult. An evidence of the recognition of the diploma is that only 9% of HEC students also attended university in 1959, whereas 47% had done so in 1929.
In 1964, French President Charles de Gaulle inaugurated a new wooded campus in Jouy-en-Josas. In 1967, HEC launched its executive education programs. Women have been accepted at HEC since 1973. Only 27 women were accepted that year and HEC jeunes filles, another school dedicated to women, was closed. Its alumnae are officially considered as graduates of HEC. HECJF alumni include, for example, Édith Cresson, the first and to date the only woman to have held the office of Prime Minister of France.
In 1988, HEC founded the CEMS network with ESADE, the Bocconi University and the Cologne University.
In 2015, the school adopted a new legal status to allow private investors to join the Board.
In 2017, HEC launched a portfolio of new dual degree programs called M2M with Yale, HKUST, and FGV.

International rankings

HEC Paris has constantly been ranked the best business school in France, and among the top in the world.
HEC alumni include 12 CEOs of F500 companies – 2017 more than any other business school in the world and third institution only to Harvard and Stanford –, several heads of states and governments, heads of international organizations, and other prominent figures in politics, business, and the arts.
In 2017, HEC Alumni has been ranked by The Economist as the 2nd most powerful business school alumni network in the world.

Programs

''Grande école'' (Master in Management)

French students who attended a classe préparatoire are taught fundamental managerial sciences during their first year at HEC. Courses include economics, accounting, finance, law, psychology, sociology and mathematics. During this first year, students can spend a semester in a foreign university. They can also enroll in a specific one-year program to get a bachelor's degree from a French university.
Direct admissions, including international students, enter directly into the second year, where they begin a business intensive program. Courses include corporate and market finance, accounting, marketing, law, mathematics, management, human resources, and supply chain. Second-year students are also given the opportunity to spend one semester in a foreign university. At the end of their second year, students choose specific majors and must pass through a less competitive application process.
In order to graduate, students are required to have 8 months of internships. Since this is usually difficult during the summer, many students take a semester or year off for their internship, generally between the second and third year. The final year of study covers intensive courses in the chosen major.
HEC Paris has numerous double degree agreements with French and foreign institutions, including Sciences Po Paris, ENS Paris, and Ecole Polytechnique in France, and Yale University, HKUST, and FGV abroad. Some of them only make degrees of the partner institution available to HEC students, while others also enable selected students of the partner institution to graduate from HEC.

One year MSc / MS Programs

The MBA program, created in 1969, has two intakes: September and January. HEC's MBA consists in a 16-month-long curriculum, with 8 months of core courses and 8 months of customized program, including several specialization options, exchange programs, and fieldwork projects. A typical class is composed of some 250 students – 90% of whom are international students – with more than 52 nationalities represented in the 2017 graduating class. The selection process seeks a balance between academic achievement, professional experience, international exposure, and personal motivation. Knowledge of French is not an entry requirement, but participants are highly encouraged to have a basic knowledge of French by the start of the MBA Program, while mandatory and optional language courses are offered throughout the duration of the program. Exchange and dual degree programs are offered with about 40 international partner business schools, including HKUST, London Business School, Columbia Business School, Wharton, and Yale.

Executive education

Executive MBA

The HEC Executive MBA is a program for top executives with a minimum of 8 years of corporate experience, which prepares for general management positions. The Executive MBA is a multi-site program offered in Paris, Beijing, St Petersburg and Doha. The courses are split between theory, case studies, strategic project, leadership training, EU community campus and foreign exchanges in the US and Asia. Program partnering universities are NYU, UCLA, Babson College in the US, Tsinghua University in China and Nihon University in Japan.

TRIUM Global Executive MBA

HEC also offers the TRIUM Global Executive MBA programme jointly with Stern School of Business of NYU and the London School of Economics. It is divided into six modules that are held in five international business locations over a 16-month period.

PhD Program

The HEC Paris PhD in Management provides training for careers in research and academia. It offers 7 specialisations and usually takes 4-5 years to complete. The specialisations offered are: Accounting & Management Control, Economics & Decision Sciences, Finance, Information Systems & Operations Management, Management & Human Resources, Marketing, and Strategy & Business Policy. There are currently 67 students in the program, representing 19 nationalities. More than 90% of the students join an academic career on completion. All PhD students receive a full tuition waiver, a five-year cost of living scholarship and research support funding.

Admissions

HEC Paris is considered among the most selective French grandes écoles. The number of applications has steadily increased over the years.

Student life

Campus

HEC is located on a 110-hectare woodland campus in Jouy-en-Josas, 16 km. southwest of central Paris, close to Versailles. Jouy-en-Josas is served by the RER Parisian suburban train and the local bus service. The campus is built around a 19th-century château, which is currently used for Executive Education classes.
Lodging is provided in one of ten dormitories providing basic but furnished rooms. Everyone eats together at the University Restaurant, which serves two meals a day in a soup kitchen setting. Grande école and Specialized Master students have classes in the Bâtiment des études, while MBA students study in a specially designated building. There are three on-campus bars: Le Zinc, which is located on the second floor of the former Cafeteria, Le Wunder Bar, which is located on the first floor next to the Kfet, and the Piano Bar, which is adjacent to the MBA residence hall. The campus also boasts several sports fields, gym facilities and two lakes.

Clubs

There are around 130 clubs or "associations" on campus.
The HEC Student Council is in charge of the social entertainment on campus. It is also in charge of coordinating all club activities and representing the students in front of the campus administration. The BDE organizes weekly events such as POWs, lunches and dinners, speakers, and sport events. HEC parties, which usually are organised every Thursday, are some of the most recognized ones among all French schools and universities. The BDE is composed of a 40-student team that is elected each year in April and for which the competition among students creates the well-known Student Office Campaign.
The HEC MBA Council is in charge of all social activities related to the MBA student body. It manages the MBA students' Piano Bar in the Expansiel Building, coordinates and sometimes funds all MBA club activities, works to expand the HEC MBA brand, develops campus and alumni relations, sets up the new MBA students' integration week, and generally relays student concerns and needs to the administration. Elections for the MBA Council are bi-annual so as to accommodate both January and September MBA intakes.

Alumni association

The school alumni association, Association des diplômés HEC Paris, was founded in 1883 and gathers alumni of the different institutions of the HEC Group: École HEC Paris, MBA HEC Paris, HEC Paris Executive MBA, Mastères HEC Paris and Doctorat HEC Paris. Each degree is associated with a letter and the year of graduation. In 2017, HEC Alumni has been ranked by The Economist as the 2nd most powerful business school alumni network in the world.