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91 (enrolled at the EiCNAM Grande Ecole engineering School) | 340 in total
Location
Headquartered in Paris, France; campuses in Paris (36% of students), in 160 other French cities, in overseas France (3% of students), campuses in whole francophone Africa and in other countries (11% of students)
Headquartered in Paris, it has campuses in every major French cities, in overseas France and in every francophone African country, China, Haiti, Germany, and Switzerland. Founded in 1794 by the French bishop Henri Grégoire, CNAM's core mission is dedicated to provide education and conduct research for the promotion of science and industry. With 70,000 students and a budget of €174 million, it is the largest university in Europe in terms of Budget for distance learning and continued education, and in terms of enrolment, slightly ahead of the University of Hagen.
The CNAM hosts also a museum dedicated to scientific and industrial inventions: Musée des Arts et Métiers (English: the Industrial Design Museum) which welcomed 250,000 visitors in 2018, and is located on the Parisian campus of the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts at 292 rue Saint Martin, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, in the historical area of the city named Le Marais.
History
Founded on 10 October 1794, during the French Revolution, it was then proposed by AbbéHenri Grégoire as a "depository for machines, models, tools, drawings, descriptions and books in all the areas of the arts and trades". The deserted Saint-Martin-des-Champs Priory (and particularly its Gothicrefectory by Pierre de Montereau) was selected as the site of collection, which officially opened in 1802.
Tennis Court Oath (1789) by David : the abbot Henri Grégoire, was a founding member of the French Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, and is shown here wearing his clergy black cloth, in the foreground, at the centre of the painting with Dom Gerle on the left and Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne on the right-hand side.
Originally charged with the collection of inventions, it has since become an educational institution. At the present time, it is known primarily as a grand-école and university for:
adults seeking higher education as engineering (multidisciplinary scientific program), master and bachelor degrees, mostly through evening and/or remote classes in a variety of topics ;
young students enrolling in training diplomas in apprenticeship ;
international student of bachelors and masters taught in English.
The collection of inventions is now operated by the Musée des Arts et Métiers. The original Foucault pendulum was exhibited as part of the collection, but was moved to the Panthéon in 1995 during museum renovation. It was later reinstalled in the Musée des Arts et Métiers. On 6 April 2010, the cable suspending the original pendulum bob snapped causing irreparable damage to the pendulum and to the marble flooring of the museum.
For the first time in history, in 1851, the French physicistLéon Foucault used a pendulum in order to prove the rotation of Earth around its own axis. The pendulum is exhibited at the Museum of Cnam on the Parisian campus and at the Panthéon.
The novel Foucault's Pendulum written by Umberto Eco deals greatly with this establishment, as the Foucault pendulum hung in the museum plays a great role in the storyline. The novel was published in 1988 prior to the pendulum being moved back to the Panthéon during the museum reconstruction.
The French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts is infused with the values of the Lumières, as part of the French enlightenment era, of the 18th Century French Humanism, and of the French encyclopedists, whose goal was to provide emancipation via knowledge for everyone; the latter being often followed by most Grande Ecole and Universities in France, along with Universalism and Cartesianism. This background paved the way to nowadays CNAM's values of meritocracy, solidarity and academic excellence.
Under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and as French public institution of higher education, it is assigned three missions:
Training throughout life (Lifelong learning);
Technological research and innovation;
Dissemination of scientific and technical culture.
These missions and values are reflected in CNAM's motto: "Omnes docet ubique", which means: "Teaching to everyone everywhere."
Campuses
Parisian campus
Out of the 70,000 students enrolled at CNAM (57.7% employees, 24% job seekers, 12% students, 6.3% self-employed), 36% are enrolled at the Parisian campus, 3% in Overseas France, 11% abroad and the rest in metropolitan France, of which 1,592 are enrolled at the Grande Ecoleengineer school of CNAM: the EiCNAM. The Parisian campus and headquarters of the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts is located in one of the last medieval architectural area of Paris, in the historical district of Le Marais in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, at the former Benedictine priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, which church and core architectural style was inspired by the Basilica of Saint-Denis architecture built a few years earlier.
This large Cluniacmonastery founded by King Henry the First of France in 1059–1060 on Merovingian vestige, is still visible today. The former gothic-style refectory hall dated from the 13th century remains until today and was reassigned as the library in the middle of the 19th century by the CNAM's architect: Léon Vaudoyer.
Main entrance of the Parisian Campus of the CNAM, on Rue Saint Martin - picture taken from Square Emile Chautemps.
Parisian campus of CNAM, adjacent to the main Parisian campus, on the former campus of École Centrale, located on rue Montgolfier (3rd arrondissement).
Main Entrance of the parisian campus of CNAM, adjacent to the main Parisian campus of CNAM, located on the former campus of École Centrale, situated on rue Montgolfier (3rd arrondissement).
Fontaine du Vert Bois at one of the corner of the Parisian campus of CNAM, at the intersection between rue Saint Martin and rue du Vertbois.
Léon Vaudoyer (1803–1872) Architect of the CNAM Parisian Campus. He designed and conducted some of the CNAM buildings of the Parisian campus, along with the Institut de France building, during the nineteenth century.
Guillaume Postel, one of the first professor of the Collège de France (another higher education institution categorised as Grand Etablissement, just like CNAM), is buried in the former priory on the Parisian Campus of CNAM.
Campuses in the rest of Metropolitan France
CNAM is based in 160 other French cities. French regional CNAM Centres are financially independent but pedagogically linked to the CNAM public institution based in Paris (namely of enrolment, selection and evaluation of candidates), and their existence is governed by a specific ministry decree. Half of the regional CNAM centres budget is allocated by the French regional councils. A student should apply through the nearest French regional CNAM in terms of enrolment, in other words, someone living in Marseille should enrol in Marseille's regional center (PACA) and not in Paris, even if his/her desired curriculum is not available in Marseille. As the vast majority of continuing education curricula are taught online, continuing education students can most of the time attend them via their nearest CNAM regional centre. Shall some specific classes be available only in Paris or at another regionalc centre, the student can attend these courses on-site, shall it be required (for example laboratory sessions in Life Science, Physics or Chemistry). Regional centres providing Engineering diploma via the EiCNAM, the Grande Ecole Engineer School of CNAM are all certified by the French national committee responsible for evaluation and accreditation of higher education institutions for the training of professional engineers in France (in French: Commission des Titres d'Ingénieur, abbr.: CTI). Some CNAM regional centres are hosted by other partner universities, for example the CNAM centre of Aix-en-Provence is located at the campus of the French Grande Ecole engineering and research school: Arts et Métiers ParisTech.
CNAM campus in Reims, Champagne province. class=notpageimage| Campuses of the French National Conservatory of Arts Crafts (abbreviated in French as: CNAM) worldwide. This map does not take into account campuses based in mainland France and Corsica.
On 7 July 2016, the CNAM's board of directors enacted a reform via the directory of decisions number 2016-24 AG to 2016–33 AG, which goal was to create 16 national pedagogic teams (French: équipes pédagogiques nationales | abbr.: EPN) in lieu of the School for industrial sciences and technologies (French: écoles Sciences industrielles et technologies de l’information | abbr.: Siti) and the School for Management and Society Management et société (French: école Management et Société | abbr.: MS). Some Pedagogic Teams below are also sometimes Schools per se.
EPN 1: Building and energetics
EPN 2: School for Surveyors, Geometricians-Topographers (Abbreviation of the school name in French: ESGT)
Ecole Pasteur-Cnam: School specialised in public health
Ecole Vaucanson: first National Management and Engineering Grande Ecole Higher Education Institution for students coming from vocational baccalaureate curricula.
EiCnam Ecole d'ingénieur.e: "Ei-" standing for: Ecole d'Ingénieur (in English: Engineering School), Grande Ecole curriculum, which like any other Grande Ecole selects students via a national competitive examination.
ENASS: French National School for Insurances
Enjmin: School specialised in video games and interactive media
ESGT: School for surveyor/geometrician-topographer
ICH: Institute specialised in Law applied to Real Estate
ICSV: Institute specialing in Sales and Marketing
FFI: College for Refrigeration, Industrial Cooling and HVAC engineering
IHIE-SSET: Institute for Hygiene and Food Safety
IIM: Institute specialised in Management
Inetop: Institute for the study of Labour, career counselling, personal development, education
INTD: Institute for Culture, Information, Technology and Society
Intec: Institute for Economics and Accountancy
Institute of Technology in Management, IT, Industrial Engineering, Physical Measurement, Material Studies
ISTNA: Institute for Nutrition and Food Science
ITIP: Institute for Transport and Ports
The academic staff headcount in 2020 reached 1,670, with 568 professors/researchers and 1,120 academic staff, which are called at CNAM: Biatss (French: bibliothèque, ingénieurs, administratifs, techniciens, social et santé | English: library staff, engineering staff, administrative staff, technical taff, social and health services staff).
Doctoral college, schools and research centres
Doctoral college and doctoral schools
The CNAM provides via its doctoral college PhD-curricula via distance-learning (along the job), or on-site. There are 91 PhD candidates enrolled at the EiCNAM Grande Ecole engineering School, and a total of 350 professors-researchers and academic staff for a total of 340 doctoral students from 40 different nationalities enrolled at CNAM worldwide, at which 60 thesis defence/examination take place yearly. The doctoral college of CNAM comprises two doctoral schools:
a doctoral school specialised in Science and Engineering (French: Sciences des métiers de l’ingénieur.e | abbr.: SMI), in partnership with the French Grande Ecole Arts et métiers (doctoral school code: ED 432),
and a doctoral school Abbé-Grégoire specialised in Humanities and Arts (ED 546).
Doctoral schools in partnership with other French Universities:
ED 591 : Physics, engineering sciences and energetics
ED 532 : Mathematics and informatics
ED 435 : Agriculture, biology, environment, health
ED 146 : Sciences, technology, health
Paris-Saclay University is a partner of Cnam, with which the latter shares a doctoral college. Paris-Saclay ranks 13 in the world in 2020 according to ARWU, 1st in Mathematics and 9th in Physics (1st in Europe), with a teaching and academic research staff of 9,000, while catering 48,000 students — which is more than Harvard or Stanford. Doctoral College of Paris-Saclay University.
The French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts is a Grand Etablissment (like the prestigious Collège de France founded in 1530), but is also a Grande Ecole which provides Grande-Ecole degrees, i.e. solely Master's Degrees, MBAs and PhDs (Grande Ecoles do not bestow diplomas lower than a EuropeanMaster's degree level). A Grande Ecole, literally "Great School", is a higher education institution and part of a French league of universities, which select students via national competitive entrance examinations (in French: concours) to safeguard meritocracy and impartiality. The French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts was one of the founding Schools of the Grande Ecole System in the wake of the French Revolution.
Grande Ecoles are separate from, but parallel and often connected to, the main framework of the French public university system. Grandes écoles, like CNAM, are elite academic institutions which enroll students via 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 bestowed upon by the Ministry of National Education (France). Higher education business and engineering degrees in France are organised into three levels thus facilitating international mobility: the Licence / Bachelor's degrees, and the Master's and Doctorat degrees. The Bachelor's and the Master's degrees are organised in semesters: 6 for the Bachelor's and 4 for the Master's. Those levels of study include various "parcours" (in English: paths or curricula) based on UE (Unités d'enseignement or Modules, in English: Teaching Units or Modules), each worth a defined number of European credits (ECTS) and thus abiding by the Bologna Process of the European Union. A student accumulates those credits, which are generally transferable between curricula. A Bachelor's is awarded once 180 ECTS have been obtained (3 years of higher studies after high school, abbreviated in French as "bac+ 3"); a Master's is awarded once 120 additional credits have been reached (5 years of higher studies after high school, abbreviated in French as "bac+ 5", i.e. 2 additional years after a Bachelor's degree).
One of the prerequesite of a Grande Ecole (along with having the Grande Ecole-label), is to select students via national competitive examinations. The latter are well-acknowledged to be particularly stringent. While students prepare for these National Competitive examinations right after their high school diploma (often obtained with a magna cum laude or summa cum laude) during a two-year preparatory programme in high schools proposing such curricula; some other students will start an Undergraduate or Bachelor's degree and prepare for the national Competitive examinations along their studies at Universities or private Colleges in France or abroad. Both pathways have their own advantages and drawbacks.
As CNAM provides remote and continuous education, the access to the Grande Ecole does not require that candidates go through preparatory classes. Instead, obligatory classes and tests in Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and English, along with a minimum required work experience (at least 6 months in a relevant field to the one the candidate wishes to apply to) and a minimum degree in a relevant field (an Undergraduate degree, i.e. 2 years of higher education after the French High School Diploma called Baccalauréat) will be expected as minimum requirements from candidates. Additionally, an interview of candidates will be conducted to select appropriate future Grande Ecole students. The Competitive Examination can only be retaken thrice.
The most selective Grande Ecole will enroll less than 10% of candidates, i.e. 90% of candidates are bound to fail, not because they performed poorly, but because a handful of students performed better, which is in itself, the principle of a competitive examination. In some Grande Ecole, it is possible to retake a Grande Ecole national competitive examination as many times as one wishes, whereas some others limit the possibilities to retake the examination to a maximum of three times.
Louis de Broglie (academic staff). Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics in 1929, member of the governance committee of the CNAM in 1945 and member of the technical committee of the test laboratory of the CNAM in 1945.
Louis Pasteur (alumnus). Pasteur studied at the École Normale Supérieure and at the CNAM, chemist and biologist. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern bacteriology and has been honoured as the "father of bacteriology" and as the "father of microbiology".
Jacques de Vaucanson (donator). Engineer who invented the first all-metal lathe (a loom for weaving wavy fabrics) in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, gave his personal collection to the CNAM as well as his name to a street adjacent to the CNAM. As a token of his work, the Vaucanson Institute was established in 2010 by the CNAM.
Valérie Petit (alumnus). French politician who has been serving as a member of the French National Assembly since the 2017 elections, representing the 9th constituency of the department of Nord. From 2016 until 2020, she was a member of La République En Marche!. In parliament, Petit serves on the Finance Committee.
Yves F. Meyer (faculty). Mathematician and professor at CNAM. Meyer is a French mathematician. He is among the progenitors of wavelet theory, having proposed the Meyer wavelet. Meyer was awarded the Abel Prize in 2017.
Alexandre Millerand (alumnus). He was Prime Minister of France from 20 January to 23 September 1920 and President of France from 23 September 1920 to 11 June 1924.
Francis Mer (academic staff) at the IMF in 2003. Former French Minister of Economy from 2002 to 2004. is a French businessman, industrialist and politician. A former alumnus of the École Polytechnique, and of the Mines ParisTechGrande EcoleEngineer School, he is a member of the Corps des mines. He was one of the former president of the steering committee of CNAM.
Claude Pouillet (academic staff) was a French physicist and a professor of physics at the Sorbonne, professor and third director of CNAM as well as member of the French Academy of Sciences. Pouillet developed the Pouillet effect. He corrected Joseph Fourier's work on the surface temperature of the Earth, developing the first real mathematical treatment of the greenhouse effect. He speculated that water vapour and carbon dioxide might trap infrared radiation in the atmosphere, warming the Earth enough to support plant and animal life.
Serge Haroche (faculty) is a French physicist who was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physics jointly with David J. Wineland for "ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems", a study of the particle of light, the photon. He was guest lecturer at CNAM.
BaronCharles Dupin (faculty). French mathematician, engineer, economist and politician, particularly known for work in the field of mathematics, where the Dupin cyclide and Dupin indicatrix are named after him; and for his work in the field of statistical and thematic mapping. In 1826 he created the earliest known choropleth map. He was one of the founding members of the first three research chairs of CNAM.
Gaston Tissandier (alumnus). French chemist, meteorologist, aviator and editor. Adventurer, he managed to escape besieged Paris by balloon in September 1870. Founder and editor of the scientific magazine La Nature.
Paul Painlevé (academic staff) former Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Cnam, was a French mathematician and statesman. He served twice as Prime Minister of the Third Republic. His entry into politics came in 1906 after a professorship at the Sorbonne that began in 1892. In the 1920s as Minister of War he was a key figure in building the Maginot Line.
Thierry Malet (alumnus), is a French composer of film music. He is also the designer of the very first MIDI guitars and a new 3D spatialization system for feature film music. He studied acoustics at the Cnam.
Benoît Roy (alumnus). Industrialist and politician, he established in 1985 the company Audiolab, specialised in hearing aid, of which he is the CEO since then. He is the honorary president of the French hearing aid association and vice-president of the European hearing aid association. He is member of the RPR, then of the UDF and finally of the Nouveau Centre political parties. He was briefly first French constituency of the Indre-et-Loiredepartment in 2002.
François Joseph Fournier (alumnus). Self-taught Belgian adventurer and entrepreneur who explored Mexico and the island of Porquerolles. He was born into a family of modest means, in Clabecq, Belgium and died on Porquerolles.
Lucien Bossoutrot (alumnus). French aviator and pilot of the first public aerial transport between Paris and London in 1919, twice world-record in closed-circuit flights (8,805 km in 1931 and 10,601 km in 1932).
Michel Colomban (alumnus). French aeronautical engineer known for his home-built aircraft. He designed the Colomban Cri-cri in 1973, which follower was the model: Cri-Cri (F-PRCQ) i.e. the first all-electric four-engine aircraft in the world.
Pierre Bézier (faculty), former professor at the Cnam, was a French engineer and mathematician, and one of the founders of the fields of solid, geometric and physical modelling as well as in the field of representing curves, especially in computer-aided design and manufacturing systems. As an engineer at Renault, he became a leader in the transformation of design and manufacturing, through mathematics and computing tools, into computer-aided design and three-dimensional modelling. Bézier patented and popularized the Bézier curves and Bézier surfaces that are now used in most computer-aided design and computer graphics systems.
Stasys Ušinskas (alumnus). Lithuanian artist of multiple creative fields: modern painting, stained glass, scenography, animation, puppetry and decorative glass artworks. He is widely regarded as the "father of Lithuanian stained glass art".
At the French Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, students are commonly (and also officially) called "auditeurs", referring to audience/listener (instead of "étudiants", in English: students).
Graduates from the Grande Ecole Engineering School: EiCNAM, receive coloured graduation scarf during the diploma bestowal ceremony, depending on the major they belong to:
Building and public works Engineering, Energetics Engineering, Nuclear Power Engineering,
IT Engineering,
Bioinformatics Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Bio-Engineering, Process Engineering, Risk Management Engineering,
Automation and Robotics Engineering, Electrical Engineering,
Electronic Systems Engineering, Electronic Systems, Telecommunication and IT Engineering, Electronic system and railway signalling Engineering,
Aeronautics and Aerospace Engineering, Rail Operation Engineering,
Material Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering.
Les Professeurs de la faculté des sciences de Paris, 1901-1939. Dictionnaire biographique (1901-1939) (in French). Vol. 25. Editions du CNRS. 1989. pp. 56–60. ISBN978-2222043362.
Prouvé : cours du CNAM, 1957-1970 Essai de reconstitution du cours à partir des archives Jean Prouvé (in French). Mardaga. 2002. ISBN978-2-87009-434-1.
Smart, Nick (1996). "The Maginot Line: An Indestructible Inheritance". International Journal of Heritage Studies. 2 (4): 222–233. doi:10.1080/13527259608722177.
Main entrance of the Parisian Campus of the CNAM, on Rue Saint Martin - picture taken from Square Emile Chautemps.
Parisian underground station of Arts & Métiers, founded in 1904, which is served by Line 3 and Line 11. For its renovation in 1988, the Ouï-dire style was applied to Line 3, whilst on Line 11, for the bicentenary anniversary of CNAM in 1994, the platforms were redesigned by Belgian comics cartoonist François Schuiten in a steampunk style reminiscent of the science fiction works of Jules Verne.
The Court of Honour of the CNAM.
Library of the CNAM on the Parisian campus, in the former refectory of the Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs.
Statue of the French physicist and Huguenot: Denis Papin (1647–1713), inventor of the Steam Engine, on the Parisian campus of CNAM.
Statue of Nicolas Leblanc (1742–1806). French chemist and surgeon he invented artificial soda ash.
View of the CNAM Parisian campus from Rue Réaumur, a French entomologist who introduced the Réaumur Temperature scale in 1730.
Parvis of the Museum of Arts and Crafts and Industrial Design, on the Parisian Campus of CNAM.
The Avion III of Clément Ader (1841 - 1926) autodidact French inventor and engineer) at the Musée des Arts et Métiers on the Parisian campus of CNAM.
Parisian campus of CNAM, adjacent to the main Parisian campus, on the former campus of École Centrale, located on rue Montgolfier (3rd arrondissement).
Main Entrance of the parisian campus of CNAM, adjacent to the main Parisian campus of CNAM, located on the former campus of École Centrale, situated on rue Montgolfier (3rd arrondissement).
Fontaine du Vert Bois at one of the corner of the Parisian campus of CNAM, at the intersection between rue Saint Martin and rue du Vertbois.
Léon Vaudoyer (1803–1872) Architect of the CNAM Parisian Campus. He designed and conducted some of the CNAM buildings of the Parisian campus, along with the Institut de France building, during the nineteenth century.
Guillaume Postel, one of the first professor of the Collège de France (another higher education institution categorised as Grand Etablissement, just like CNAM), is buried in the former priory on the Parisian Campus of CNAM.
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French Guiana
French Polynesia
Martinique
New Caledonia
Algeria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Gabon
Guinea
Ivory Coast
Lebanon: Network of 7 campus founded since 1971.
Madagascar
Mali
Mauritania
Morocco
Niger
Republic of the Congo
Senegal
Chad
Togo
Tunisia
Haiti (in partnership with the State University of Haiti)
China: Dongguan
Germany
Switzerland / 
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Louis de Broglie (1892–1987) Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics.
Louis Néel (1904– 2000) Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics.
René Thom (1923–2002) Fields Medallist.
