ChangeNOW/Les Echos ranking of “grandes écoles”: who prepares best for the challenges of our time?

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The fourth ranking of French “grandes écoles” (major schools) of business and engineers committed in environmental and social transition designed by ChangeNOW and the French finance newspaper Les Echos has just been released. As in previous rankings, the 2024 survey puts the highlight on institutions that made significant efforts to implement these values, both in their training courses and programmes, and in their work on a daily basis. On the three steps of the podium of the two rankings: Mines Nancy, CentraleSupélec et l’Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, on the engineers’ sides, and ESSEC, ESCP and emlyon on the business schools’ side.

The 2024 ChangeNOW/Les Echos survey analysed the responses of 60 schools composed of 28 business schools and 32 schools of engineering, a larger number than in the past. The survey covered some forty points, divided into six sections take into account ecological and societal commitment: training, employability and academic excellence, schools’ overall strategy, diversity and inclusion, the existence of an alumni network (and its impact), and the action of student associations in this area.

An average “fairly good” rating for all schools

“Which top engineering and business schools best prepare future leaders to meet the challenges of our time?”. According to Les Echos, the survey seeks to answer a difficult question by showing that “a large proportion of the ‘grandes écoles’ [which designates French forefront schools] are well on the way to preparing future leaders to meet the enormous environmental and social challenges of the coming decades”. The results of the ranking show that the participating schools are up by one and a half points on last year, with the average score this year at 13.3/20, “a fairly good mark”, says Les Echos!

According to the business daily, “most schools have climbed the first step: raising awareness”. However, though the work carried out in recent years has helped raise awareness, it is “not enough to turn the tide and change professional practices and respond to the necessary adjustments in our economies”. Les Echos adds that today, “most schools are getting down to the hard part: bringing all courses into line with the specialised courses that they have largely developed in recent years”. And it is “those that are most advanced in this process that take the lion’s share of the ChangeNOW/Les Echos 2024 ranking”.

Top 10 of business schools

While it is clear that the ecological transition has become a priority for all forefront schools in France, to make it easier to understand, the ChangeNOW/Les Echos rankings are divided into business schools and engineering schools. The business schools ranking has been fairly stable over the years.

Here’s the Top 10 of most committed schools:

ESSEC Business School keeps “its first position for the third consecutive year”;
ESCP Business School is second, just behind ESSEC;
emlyon Business School climbs the third step this year;
Audencia and NEOMA Business School, “are just behind, in a very tight Top 5”, says Les Echos.

And the list continues as follow: HEC Paris, IESEG School of Management, Skema Business School and Excelia Business School. And in 10th position, three institutions share the same spot: Kedge Business School, Montpellier Business School and TBS Education.

Top 10 of schools of engineering

Though gaps between business schools tend to close, the survey shows that conversely, “the gap is widening between schools of engineering”. This year’s Top 5 is disrupted as follow:

Mines Nancy takes the lead of the 2024 ranking (ranked 3rd last year);
CentraleSupélec (2nd) and Ecole des Ponts ParisTech (3rd) climb on the podium, despite being ranked 9th and 16th respectively in 2023;
EIVP Paris, the schools of engineering of the City of Paris, reaches rank 4 (up one position);
Centrale Nantes, falls from 1st to 5th position.

The next schools completing the Top 10 are: institut polytechnique UniLaSalle, Builders Ecole d’ingénieurs (based in Caen) and in 9th position, sharing the same rank: ENSEEIHT - INP Toulouse and ENTPE - Lyon.

Why this ranking?

ChangeNOW is convinced that “schools have a key role to play in building a sustainable world”, and explains the approach that guided the creation of this survey of the schools most committed to the ecological and societal transition:

Two objectives:

to guide students towards the schools that will give them the best chance of becoming tomorrow’s agents of change;
to inspire all schools and institutions to take up the ecological and social challenge, by providing them with a precise analysis of their state of progress in relation to these issues.