Founded in 1872 as the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, Sciences Po has been training the best young minds of France and Europe for leadership service for more than 100 years. As one of Europe's most distinguished universities, Sciences Po prepares students to take their place in international business, multilateral organizations, positions of public responsibility, and other fields of endeavor. As a center of European learning, and conscious of the contribution it can make to a world influx, Sciences Po is a truly international university.

Students are drawn to Sciences Po - including increasing numbers (over 25% of the student body) of students from abroad - for its commitments to understanding the contemporary world through a plurisdisciplinary grounding in the social sciences. International students in particular stand to benefit not only from solid training in contemporary history and the synthetic core curriculum, but also from Sciences Po's famous method-training seminars and other features of an intensive pedagogical approach.

Sciences Po has some 5,000 students, including 1,300 students from abroad, in a variety of degree programs. Half of these students pursue Master's level or professional degree programs. In general, instruction at Sciences Po aims to impart an understanding of social sciences principles sufficient to equip its students not only to comprehend but also to have an impact on the world they inherit. Comparative and cross-disciplinary studies are central to a curriculum that strives to comprehend global coherence and conflict, as well as the implications of current social, political, and economic debate.

Instruction is provided by a staff of some 1,200 teachers, a great majority of whom are solidly established as practitioners in their respective fields. This unusual type of faculty is anchored by a small nucleus of tenured professors teaching full-time at Sciences Po.

Sciences Po has seven research centers that provide a framework for some 200 researchers. Research account for 20% of its annual budget; taken in a national perspective this effort represents one of the most important initiatives in social science research in France today.

Founded in 1871, the Sciences Po Library has the richest social sciences collection on the European continent: political science, economics, history, geography, law, international relations, sociology, are the areas in which it excels. It houses a nearly million-volume collection of works in the various social sciences and 20th-century history. The library is the hub of the Documentary Service which maintains 16,000 press dossiers on a wide range of sub-topics ranging back over most of the century, and which each years abstracts and indexes some 17,000 articles from the 6,000 periodicals to which the Documentary Service subscribes. Since 1982, the National Education Ministry has made it the Center for Acquisition and Dissemination of Scientific and Technical Information (CADIST) in the field of political science. Since 1994, it has been the antenna associated with the Bibliothèque Nationale de France for certain aspects of political science.

The Sciences Po website can be viewed at www.sciences-po.fr. For information, contact Elodie Luquet.