There is no national rankings of universities and Grandes écoles in France, but only rankings based on the Academic major, the completion and graduation rates in a bachelor's (Licence) or master's degree, or on employment after graduation. According to a parliamentary report by the French Senate, global university rankings, in particular the Academic Ranking of World Universities, are being taken into greater consideration and have been very successful over the past decade.[1] The French government also uses the Shanghai ranking as its national ranking for French universities and Grandes écoles.[2]
Only Le Figaro, Le Parisien and L'Étudiant, based on figures from the French government's two national higher education access platforms Parcoursup and MonMaster, rank the best bachelor's (Licence) and master's degrees according to completion rates.[3] [4] Le Figaro, L'Étudiant and Le Nouvel Obs also produce an annual ranking of the best Grandes écoles in business and engineering, which are only accessible on the basis of a highly selective competitive examination.[5] Eduniversal provides rankings of undergraduate and graduate degrees of French universities in some areas.
Some of France's universities also rank highly in global university rankings, with five French universities (all in Paris) ranking in the top 100 of at least one of the three major global rankings: QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings and Academic Ranking of World Universities.
See also: College and university rankings.
| University or Grande école | Department | ARWU (2024)[6] | data-sort-type="number" | QS (2025)[7] | data-sort-type="number" | THE (2024)[8] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paris-Saclay University (includes 4 Grandes écoles) | 1 | 12 | 73 | 58 | |||
| PSL University (includes 10 Grandes écoles) | 2 | 33 | 24 | 40 | |||
| Sorbonne University | 3 | 41 | 63 | 75 | |||
| Paris Cité University | 4 | 60 | 302 | 152 | |||
| Aix Marseille University | 5 | 101–150 | |||||
| Grenoble Alpes University | 6 | 101–150 | |||||
| University of Strasbourg | 7 | 101–150 | |||||
| University of Montpellier | 8 | 151–200 | |||||
| Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 | 9 | 201–300 | |||||
| University of Bordeaux | 10 | 201–300 | |||||
| University of Lorraine | 11 | 201–300 | |||||
| École normale supérieure de Lyon | 12 | 301–400 | |||||
| Polytechnic Institute of Paris (Grande école) | 13 | 301–400 | 46 | 71 | |||
| Toulouse Capitole University | 14 | 301–400 | |||||
| Paul Sabatier University | 15 | 301–400 | |||||
| University of Lille | 16 | 301–400 | |||||
The following rankings of French universities and Grandes écoles are produced annually:
| Rank (1–5) | Law School | Department | Rank (6–10) | Law School | Department | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sorbonne Law School,Panthéon-Sorbonne University | 6 | J. Monnet Faculty of Law, Paris-Saclay University | |||
| 2 | Sciences Po Law School, Sciences Po | 7 | University of Strasbourg Faculty of Law | |||
| 3 | Assas Law School, Panthéon-Assas University | 8 | Paris Nanterre University Faculty of Law | |||
| 4 | Aix-Marseille University Faculty of Law | 9 | Toulouse Capitole University Faculty of Law | |||
| 5 | Dauphine, PSL University | 10 | University of Rennes Faculty of Law |
Le Figaro
| Rank (1–10) | Law School | Rank (11–20) | Law School | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Assas Law School, Panthéon-Assas University | 11 | Faculty of Law, Toulouse Capitole University | |
| 2 | Sorbonne Law School, Panthéon-Sorbonne University | 12 | Faculty of Law, Côte d'Azur University | |
| 3 | Faculty of Law, Jean Moulin University (Lyon III) | 13 | Faculty of Law, University of Lille | |
| 4 | Malakoff Faculty of Law, Paris Cité University | 14 | Faculty of Law, CY Cergy Paris University | |
| 5 | Faculty of Law, Aix-Marseille University | 15 | Montesquieu College of Law, University of Bordeaux | |
| 6 | Faculty of Law, Paris Nanterre University | 16 | Faculty of Law, University of Montpellier | |
| 7 | J. Monnet Faculty of Law, Paris-Saclay University | 17 | Law School, Paris-East Créteil University | |
| 8 | Faculty of Law, University of Strasbourg | 18 | Faculty of Law, University of Angers | |
| 9 | Faculty of Law, Lumière University (Lyon III) | 19 | Faculty of Law, University of Burgundy | |
| 10 | Faculty of Law, University of Rennes | 20 | Nancy Faculty of Law, University of Lorraine |
| Grande école | Le Figaro (2024)[11] | L'Étudiant (2024)[12] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| HEC Paris | 1 | 1 | |
| ESSEC Business School | 2 | 3 | |
| ESCP Business School | 3 | 2 | |
| EDHEC Business School | 4 | 4 | |
| EMLyon Business School | 5 | 5 | |
| Skema Business School | 6 | 6 | |
| IÉSEG School of Management | N/A | 7 | |
| Neoma Business School | 7 | 8 | |
| Kedge Business School | 8 | 11 | |
| Audencia Business School | 9 | 8 | |
| Grenoble School of Management | 10 | 14 |
* Precision for "Le Figaro" rankings : two different rankings are available depending on whether having been to a prepa is required or not. Schools which require it are often considered more prestigious. Therefore the post-prepa ranking is considered the main one.
| Ecole polytechnique | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Mines Paris - PSL | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | |
| ESPCI Paris - PSL | 3 | 10 | 30 | 11 | |
| CentraleSupélec | 4 | 3 | 6 | 3 | |
| Ecole des Ponts ParisTech | 5 | 4 | 11 | Not included | |
| ENSTA | 6 | 6 | 2 | Not included | |
| ENSAE | 7 | 9 | 12 | 36 | |
| Télécom Paris | 8 | 5 | 7 | Not included | |
| Supaéro | 9 | 8 | 16 | 13 | |
| Centrale Lyon | 10 | 7 | 9 | 12 | |
| Centrale Nantes | 19 | 11 | 4 | Not included | |
| IMT Atlantique | 14 | 14 | 5 | 17 | |
| Mines Nancy | 12 | 14 | 8 | 5 | |
| mines St-Etienne | 21 | 14 | 10 | Not included | |
| ESILV | 43 | 3* | 20 | 4 | |
| ECE | 91 | 9* | 47 | 7 | |
| EEIGM | 70 | 42* | 56 | 8 | |
| EFREI | 98 | 8* | 33 | 9 | |
| ESIEA | 79 | 19* | 36 | 10 |