ICN Business School is a
grande école, a French institution of
higher education that is separate from, but parallel and often connected to, the main framework of the
French public university system.
Grandes écoles are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process, and a significant proportion of their graduates occupy the highest levels of French society. Similar to
Ivy League schools in the United States,
Oxbridge in the UK, and
C9 League in China, graduation from a grande école is considered the prerequisite credential for any top government, administrative and corporate position in France. The degrees are accredited by the
Conférence des Grandes Écoles and awarded by the
Ministry of National Education (France). Higher education business degrees in France are organized into three levels thus facilitating international mobility: the
Licence /
Bachelor's degrees, and the
Master's and
Doctorat degrees. The Bachelors and the Masters are organized in semesters: 6 for the Bachelors and 4 for the Masters. Those levels of study include various "parcours" or paths based on UE (Unités d'enseignement or Modules), each worth a defined number of European credits (ECTS). A student accumulates those credits, which are generally transferable between paths. A Bachelors is awarded once 180 ECTS have been obtained (bac + 3); a Masters is awarded once 120 additional credits have been obtained (bac +5). The highly coveted PGE (Grand Ecole Program) ends with the degree of Master's in Management (MiM) The Business School has the
triple accreditation:
EQUIS,
AMBA and
AACSB. == Rankings ==