École nationale d'administration

École nationale d'administration
Established	1945
Type	Public
Admin. staff	229
Undergraduates	0
Postgraduates	533 students
Location	Strasbourg, France
Website	www.ena.fr

The École Nationale d'Administration (ÉNA; French pronunciation: [ekɔl nasjɔnal dadministʁasjɔ̃]; English: National School of Administration), one of the most prestigious of French graduate schools (Grandes écoles), was created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to democratise access to the senior civil service. It is now entrusted with the selection and initial training of senior French officials. The ENA is one of the symbols of the Republican meritocracy, along with École Normale Supérieure and Ecole Polytechnique ("X"), offering its alumni access to high positions within the state. It has now been almost completely relocated in Strasbourg to emphasise its European character.

The ENA produces around 100 graduates every year, known as énarques (IPA: [enaʁk]). ENA is seen as the method of choice to reach the great administrative corps of the State.

The ENA is often compared to the College of Europe in Belgium, with which it shares several traditions.

ENA and politics

The main reason for entering ENA is that it has a legal quasi-monopoly over access to some of the most prestigious positions in the French civil service (the École polytechnique fulfills this role for other prestigious and technical positions, while some schools like the École Nationale des Impôts allow access to very specific positions). The school was created in a move to make the recruitment for various high administrative bodies more rational and democratic. By having a system solely based on academic proficiency and competitive examinations, the reasoning went, recruitment to top positions could be made more transparent, without suspicion of political or personal preference.^{[citation needed]}

French law makes it relatively easy for civil servants to enter politics: civil servants who are elected or appointed to a political position do not have to resign their position in the civil service; instead, they are put in a situation of "temporary leave" known as disponibilité. If they are not re-elected or reappointed, they may ask for their reintegration into their service (see Lionel Jospin and Philippe Séguin for examples). In addition, ENA graduates are often recruited as aides by government ministers and other politicians; this makes it easier for some of them to enter a political career. As an example, Dominique de Villepin entered politics as an appointed official, after serving as an aide to Jacques Chirac, without ever having held an elected position.

The énarques were criticised as early as the 1960s for their technocratic and arrogant ways. Young énarque Jacques Chirac was, for instance, lampooned in an album of the Asterix series. Such criticism has continued up to present times, with the énarques being accused of monopolizing positions in higher administration and politics, without having to show real efficiency. It has become a recurrent theme for many French politicians to criticise ENA, even when they themselves are alumni of the school.^{[citation needed]}

John Kenneth Galbraith and Pierre Bourdieu have studied the way this school shapes French industry and politics. The key point is that these "enarques" benefit from two main privileges: not only do they have a monopoly of the top administrative positions within the civil service, but also they can go into politics and industry without risk.

However, only a small proportion of "enarques" (around 10%) actually get involved in politics. Most ENA alumni hold neutral, technical positions in the French civil service.

ENA also participates in international Technical Assistance programmes, funded by the EU or other donors.

Recruitment and exit procedures

Entrance to ENA is granted on a competitive exam at the beginning of September, which people generally take after completing studies at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (more widely known as Sciences Po). The "concours externe" exam is in two parts :

The written part includes

- an essay on public law

- an essay on the economy

- an essay on "general knowledge" (culture générale, extremely common in French competitive exams),

- a note de synthèse (summarizing 40 to 70 pages of documents) in either (at the candidate's choice) European Law and Policies (Questions Européennes) or Social Law and Policies (Questions Sociales)

- a cinquième épreuve chosen by the candidate among many different subjects ranging from mathematics to "administrative sciences" or language.

The oral exam, taken only by those with the highest marks in the written exam, consists of

- An oral examination on Public Finances

- An oral examination on International Politics (Questions Internationales)

- An oral examination either on Questions Européennes or on Questions Sociales (whichever subject the candidate did not choose on the written test)

- An oral examination to test the skill of the candidate in a foreign language.

- A physical test

- the famous 45-minute long Grand Oral during which any question can be asked, from general knowledge to very personal questions.

Results of this exam process are published by the end of December.

Other exam processes govern admission for career civil servants (concours interne) and for all other people, already active in business, political or union activities (troisième concours).

ENA ranks students according to their academic merit; students are then asked, in order of decreasing merit, the service that they want to join. While the top-ranked join prestigious corps such as the Inspection Générale des Finances, Conseil d'État or Cour des Comptes, other will join e.g. the diplomatic service, ministries, and administrative justice or préfectures. Eventually, some enter national politics, while many end up in high-level administrative positions. To quote ENA's site:

In fact, although these famous alumni are the most visible, the majority are largely unknown, lead quiet and useful careers in our civil service, and don't recognise themselves in the stereotyped images about our school.

Promotions

Academic years at ENA are known as promotions, and are named by the students after outstanding French (Vauban, Saint-Exupéry, Rousseau), Foreigners (Mandela), characters (Cyrano de Bergerac), battles (Valmy), concepts (Croix de Lorraine, Droits de l'homme) or values (liberté-égalité-fraternité).

ENA shares this tradition with the College of Europe in Belgium.

Alumni

According to an international classification, the École nationale d'administration ranks ninth among higher education institutions in the world, with regard to the performance of their training programmes, based on the number of alumni among the Chief Executive Officers of the 500 leading worldwide companies.^[1]

Since its creation 60 years ago, the ENA has trained 5600 French senior officials and 2600 foreigners. Some famous alumni include:

• Head of state: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (France), Jacques Chirac (France), Nicéphore Soglo (Benin)
• Head of government: Laurent Fabius (France), Michel Rocard (France), Édouard Balladur (France), Alain Juppé (France), Lionel Jospin (France), Dominique de Villepin (France), Edem Kodjo (Togo), Alfred Sant (Malta), André Milongo (Republic of the Congo), Patrick Leclercq (Monaco), Jean-Paul Proust (Monaco), Brigi Rafini (Niger).
• Current French ministers: Laurent Wauquiez, Martin Hirsch, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Valérie Pécresse and Anne-Marie Idrac (typically one-third of every French cabinet since the 1960s and one-half of the Cabinet for recent administrations until Sarkozy's are ENA's alumni)^[2]
• Other political leaders: Ségolène Royal and François Hollande, who met at ENA^[2]
• Industry leaders: Michel Bon (former CEO of Carrefour and France Telecom), Jean-Marie Messier, Ernest-Antoine Seillière, Louis Schweitzer, Gérard Mestrallet, Louis Gallois, Henri de Castries, Baudouin Prot, Frederic Oudéa, Bruno Lafont, Frédéric Lemoine, Pierre-André de Chalendar (CEO of Saint-Gobain), etc.
• International organisations presidents: Pascal Lamy (World Trade Organisation), Jean-Claude Trichet (European Central Bank), Michel Camdessus, Jacques de Larosière
• Intellectuals: Jacques Attali, Frank Attar, Françoise Chandernagor, Jean-François Deniau, Gabriel de Broglie etc.

See also

• Alumni of the École Nationale d'Administration
• Sciences Po
• École Polytechnique
• École Normale Supérieure
• HEC Paris
• École nationale d'administration publique in Quebec
• European Institutions in Strasbourg
• Oxbridge
• Ivy League

References

1. ^ Professionnal ranking of world universitiesPDF (286 KB), September 2007
2. ^ ^{a b} "The rise of the lawyers". The Economist. 2007-07-05. http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9441448. Retrieved 2007-07-11. 

Mines Paris Tech, 2007, PROFESSIONAL RANKING OF WORLD UNIVERSITIES

External links

• (French) Official website
• (English) Official website
• Liberté, egalité and exclusivity

Coordinates: 48°34′50″N 7°44′14″E / 48.58056°N 7.73722°E / 48.58056; 7.73722