École Polytechnique tops L'Usine Nouvelle and L'Étudiant 2026 rankings of French Engineering Schools

École Polytechnique once again tops the annual rankings of French engineering schools compiled by L’Usine Nouvelle and L'Étudiant. 

École Polytechnique ranks first in both rankings for academic research excellence and international outreach.

In the L’Usine Nouvelle ranking, the school ranks first in terms of the professional integration of its graduates.

The high employability of graduates from École Polytechnique's various initial training programs and their smooth transition into the workforce were once again highlighted by the latest First Job Surveys conducted among 2024 graduates of the École Polytechnique engineering program, 2022 Bachelor's degree graduates, and 2024 graduates of the Master of Science & Technology (MSc&T) programs. 

L'Usine Nouvelle and L'Étudiant base their rankings on public data from the Commission des Titres d'Ingénieurs (CTI), supplemented by data from the Conférence des Directeurs des Écoles Françaises d'Ingénieurs (CDEFI) and additional questions sent to the schools.

This year, L'Usine Nouvelle ranked 121 schools, even though there are just over 200 engineering schools in France. According to the magazine, there are two reasons for this difference: only schools with more than 70 graduates are included in the rankings; and some schools have indicated that they do not wish to appear in the rankings, such as Centrale Nantes, ENSTA, and Telecom Paris, the latter two of which are members of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, like École Polytechnique. 

L'Étudiant ranking covers 174 engineering schools accredited by the CTI. Its rankings are based on 83 indicators grouped into four categories: “research and academic excellence,” “international,” “social openness and CSR,” and “professionalization and employment.”