International Vision

Sciences Po's international policy is a key aspect of its institutional strategy. With nearly 480 partnerships on every continent, an extremely diverse student body of around 50% international students, an internationally facing curriculum and world-class social science research, the international policy at Sciences Po is a form of academic diplomacy in action.

Myriad partnerships with leading institutions internationally

With nearly 480 international university partnerships in all five continents, Sciences Po has established itself as a world-leading hub of academic exchange.

Our aim is to continue expanding and stimulating our cooperation with universities based in all regions of the world, in a spirit of mutual recognition, reciprocity and partnership.

A 50% International Student Body

With non-French nationals accounting for 50% of our student body, Sciences Po offers an exceptionally diverse student experience. The university selects the most talented candidates, whether they come from France or anywhere else in the world.

Sciences Po’s 15,000 students hail from 150 different countries, a degree of diversity that remains unique among higher education institutions in France and worldwide. These numbers are a clear indicator of our appeal internationally.

Americans are the most represented foreign nationality among our students. Every year, approximately 1,100 students from the United States enrol in our programmes, equating to 12% of our international student body. The three other most represented foreign nationalities are German, Italian and Chinese.

An internationally facing curriculum

Sciences Po has made international studies an essential feature of its curriculum. It is one of the few selective universities in the world to introduce a compulsory year abroad for all undergraduate students. This makes us a major stakeholder in student mobility worldwide.

The internationalism of Sciences Po’s programmes is further illustrated by the number and calibre of international dual degrees developed over the years. These have helped to bolster Sciences Po’s reputation on the international stage and allowed it to innovate in its educational offering.

In the last 20 years, Sciences Po has also developed a wide range of regional specialisations and bilingual or exclusively English-language programmes. These cover all educational levels: undergraduate, Master’s, PhD and continuing education. Sciences Po’s many programmes and degrees meet the highest international standards, and are recognised for their excellence in the foremost university rankings.

Our degrees are also sought after by recruiters internationally, and the high employability rate among our graduates is evidence of the quality of training we provide. 35% of our graduates opt to work abroad in the first two years after their graduation.

World-class Research

Research at Sciences Po covers law, economics, history, political science and sociology, and is divided between our various research centres and cross-cutting programmes.The research community has more than 250 permanent faculty members, 320 PhD candidates, together with research associates and postdoctoral researchers. Maintaining an unwavering focus on the most pressing societal issues, research at Sciences Po feeds into and enriches public debate. The success of our faculty in securing grants from major funding bodies, such as the European Research Council and the French National Research Agency, is testament to the fundamental importance of their work. Finally, Sciences Po is also committed to sharing the findings of its research with the international academic community, students and wider society.

Each year, around a hundred researchers and professors from around the world are welcomed to Sciences Po as part of its various visiting faculty programmes. View current calls for applications.

An active player on the International Academic Stage

Sciences Po has established itself as an active player on the global academic stage, with an international strategy that prioritises the major challenges of our time. These include environmental and digital transition, the defence of academic freedom and the promotion of peace and security.

Our work on the international academic stage is governed by several core values: 

• Internationalism, mobility and international collaboration as guiding principles;
• The primacy of reciprocity in relations with universities abroad;
• The need for diversity and balanced representation among international partnerships;
• Dialogue with actors in all regions of the world as a means of promoting peace.

In line with these core values, one of Sciences Po’s current goals is to achieve greater representation of non-Western nations in both its educational offering and research partnerships, with a particular focus on Africa and Asia.

These values also inform Sciences Po’s provision of support in response to international crises and geopolitical events with the potential to impact our students and faculty. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Sciences Po implemented a range of initiatives with and for its Ukrainian students and partners. The university is also heavily involved in the national programme PAUSE, which supports institutions to host researchers in exile.