Understanding the factors influencing students’ choice of engineering school

Figures & data

Table 1. Main French higher education study programmes leading to ‘Grandes Ecoles d’Ingénieurs’.

Bac level	High school + Baccalauréat (Bac)
Admission (1)	Selection on records			Selection on records and interview
2 years	CPGE = Preparatory Classes for ‘Concours’	University (Faculty, IUT, University preparatory class)	BTS = Advanced technician’s certificate	Integrated Preparatory Class (within an Engineering School)
Admission (2)	Entrance exams	Selection on records and interview		Selection on records
3 years	Grandes Ecoles d’Ingénieurs

Table 2. Engineering schools characteristics in 2020 (Sources: www.letudiant.fr, www.ensta-paris.fr, www.enste-bretagne.fr, www.grenoble-inp.fr).

	ENSTA Paris	ENSTA Bretagne	INP Grenoble**
Location (city)	Paris	Brest	Grenoble
Status	Public	Public	Public
Curriculum	3 years	3 years	3 years
Orientation	Generalist	Generalist	Generalist
Number of specialisation fields	11	9	27
‘Concours’ (entrance exams)	Mines-Ponts	Mines-Ponts	CCINP
Students’ average Baccalauréat (High School Certificate) grade /20	17.67	16.68	16.13
N° of Students in cohort / year	219	214	1398
CPGE students	185 (84%)	173 (81%)	773 (55%)
Female students	27.40%	23.23%	24.74%
International students	28.61%	11.27%	15.52%
Student/teacher ratio	8.23	6.78	12.55
National scholarship holders	34.25%	24.50%	36.09%
Tuition fees	2650 €	2200 €	601 €
Average starting salary (gross)	42000 €*	39320 €	35291 €
Employment rate	97%*	92%	83%
Time to find the first job	NA	12 days*	25 days

*Data of 2019.

**INP Grenoble brings together six engineering schools: the figures in the table are averages weighted by the number of students in each school.

Table 3. Overview of interview participants.

Interview participants’ characteristics		Number of participants
Gender
	Men	11
	Women	7
Age
	21	9
	22	5
	23	2
	24	1
	25	1
Nationality
	French	15
	Other	3
Degree
	Bachelor	15
	Master	3
Admission
	CPGE	15
	Other (University, BTS, IUT …)	3
Disciplines
	Material Engineering	4
	Naval Engineering	3
	Automotive Engineering	3
	Electrical and IT Engineering	3
	Civil engineering (hydrography, renewable energies)	3
	Applied Sciences	1
	Industrial Engineering	1

Table 4. Interview guide.

Interview Guide

What is your background? What studies did you do before your engineering school? How did you decide to study at an engineering school? How did you collect information about engineering schools? Why did you choose your engineering school? Who influenced you in your choice of engineering school and how? Were you influenced: by your teachers? by your classmates, friends, or peers? by your family? by your associative activities? by academic counsellors? by former students? by the publicity (internet sites, forums, open days, …)? Do you have engineers in your family? How did you enrol in your engineering school? What are your objectives and motivations during your engineering studies? Why do you want to be an Engineer?