CESI was founded in 1958 as the Centre des Etudes Superieures Industrielles.
Set up by five major French companies including Renault to deal with a national shortage of production engineers, it has developed steadily by identifying gaps in provision and offering inter-company training courses. The first courses for senior technicians was introduced in 1998.
A member of the Union of Independent Grands Ecoles, it operates across five engineering disciplines: civil and construction, industry and innovation, information technology and digital, quality, safety, environment and sustainable development, and human resources and management.
Courses range from one-year gateway options integrating French culture, language and methodology to senior technician level to bachelor, professional and specialised masters, a Grand Ecole diploma and doctoral programmes, which are conducted through HESAM University.
The Grand Ecole qualification consists of a two year post-baccalaureate programme followed by three years of engineering. There is an emphasis on "Learning from Group Life" with students conducting projects in groups numbering between six and 12.
While CESI’s headquarters are in the Paris suburb of Nanterre and it also has a campus at La Defense, the bulk of its work is in more than 20 provincial French locations and five overseas centres – Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, Oran and Algiers in Algeria and Douala in Cameroon.
