International strategy

A robust international strategy is at the core of all the activities pursued at ESSEC, whether it be teaching, research, or academic support for our corporate partners and organizations. We train our students to act responsibly in an increasingly globalized economy, while placing at the heart of our teaching the global values that are dear to ESSEC: ethics, social openness, and respect for diversity.

ESSEC’s International Advisory Board, composed of corporate leaders and deans of leading business schools from around the world, provides guidance that shapes our school’s values and evolving strategic decision-making. International governance of this nature ensures that ESSEC continues to undertake globally relevant and cutting-edge teaching and research.

In 2022, ESSEC created a Department of International Relations specifically to align its international ambitions with the school’s strategy. This group-level structure supports ESSEC on the world stage and promotes both its brand and visibility in global circles. It works with the school’s different programs to seek out new opportunities for student mobility to geographies of strategic importance with a parallel goal of growing ESSEC’s presence in key regions with large concentrations of ESSEC alumni.    

Nowhere is this structured international objective as visible as our international campuses

• The ESSEC Asia-Pacific campus opened in Singapore in 2015, where ESSEC had been present since 2005.

• The ESSEC Africa campus in Rabat, Morocco opened in 2017 is also part of our international development strategy, through an aim to have a presence on every continent.

Students may choose to begin their academic paths either in France or Singapore for several programs or have the choice to pursue intercampus mobility through specialized tracks at select points of throughout their programs in France, Singapore, or Morocco. ESSEC's physical presence in Singapore and Morocco has enabled it to develop in-depth relationships with new academic and professional partners in these regions.

Permanent faculty on the APAC campus has allowed for the development of specialized tracks.

Now, with 4 campuses on 3 continents, and with the development of a virtual campus, a network of academic and corporate partners around the world, ESSEC is truly a global business school. A growing number of students come from abroad each year in addition to 50% of our faculty.

In Europe, through our association with CY Cergy Paris University, ESSEC is part of the Eutopia European Alliance bringing together ten European universities. The mission of Eutopia is to build in the long term a unique and daring alliance of transformative and engaged institutions.

• Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

• Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium

•  Ca'Foscari University, Venice, Italy

• Technische Universität Dresden, Germany,

• University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

•  University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia,

• NOVA University, Lisbon, Portugal

•  University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

•  University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

This strong European focus is also reflected in the European Management Track, a consortium of four business schools (Copenhagen Business School, ESSEC Business School, IE University, and University of Mannheim Business School). Students from ESSEC’s Master in Management and their comrades from other schools participate in a common seminar in Brussels in addition to specialized exchanges on partners’ campuses where they take specifically curated courses dedicated to understanding the European business context.

In North America, ESSEC forges partnerships with top universities in Canada, the United States, and Mexico renown for academic excellence that provide alternative worldviews to students across transdisciplinary subjects such as public affairs, engineering, hospitality management, entrepreneurship, and the environment. In 2019, ESSEC partnered with the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Engineering to facilitate students’ access to a dual degree with their Master of Engineering (MEng). In 2022, ESSEC entered into a further collaboration with Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. This partnership allows students from ESSEC’s Master in Data Sciences & Business Analytics, already in partnership with the prestigious CentraleSupélec, to earn a double degree with an American partner in an important STEM-related discipline.

In China, ESSEC has partnered since 2016 with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and since 2020 with Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management in double degree programs for Global BBA students. This last one is part of the "Future Leaders" programme initiated by Peking University that is designed to equip tomorrow's leaders with the necessary skills to navigate confidently the Chinese business environment.

To support ESSEC’s mission of helping students better understand the contemporary economic, social, and cultural dynamics that are shaping the business world, over the past 40 years we have refined this ongoing strategy of identifying and partnering with the world’s top universities and business schools to provide opportunities for international student mobility.

Through a growing network of 220 academic partners in 45 countries on 5 continents, ESSEC students can now undertake cross-cultural academic experiences that directly contribute to how they will make a future impact on their worlds. Over 20% of our young graduates start their careers abroad, and it is within this context, it is essential for students to be made aware of the importance of understanding new cultures and to having an immersive experience in another country.

• 100% of our Global BBA students undertake an international experience either through a semester or year-long exchange, a double degree, or cohort program

• 100% of the Grande École’s Master in Management carry out compulsory global experience through intercampus mobility, an international internship, exchange program, or double degree

ESSEC’s Global MBA and Executive MBA include options for intercampus mobility and global study trips with partner schools. Most of our specialized master’s and other MSc degrees also contain international components specifically designed to expose students to the latest global trends and prepare them for global careers from study trips to longer double degree opportunities.

Student participants in the IMHI program have the opportunity to spend a portion of their program at Boston University while the EMiLux executive program has partnered with the Parsons School of Design in New York.

ESSEC offers Cohort programs for Global BBA students looking for an enriched global experience linked to specific thematic discipline in partnership with other schools including;

• Responsible International Leadership (University of South Carolina)

• Innovation Management (University of California, Berkeley),

• International Business (University of Mannheim, University of South Carolina, FGV EBAPE)

Undergraduate students who are first enrolled at and graduate from ESSEC, may choose to pursue their graduate studies at one of our international partners through the Bachelor2Master (B2M) Passport initiative launched in 2020. The B2M Passport allows the best students from partnering BBA programs access to master’s level program with our network of carefully selected partners in Europe and around the world (IE, Mannheim, Warwick, HKUST, Queen's University) and for ESSEC to in turn welcome top graduates from our partners' bachelor’s programmes towards our master’s programmes.