What exactly is the “Paris Debating” group? First of all, it is important to point out that the major differences between Britain’s and France’s education system make it hard to compare the British “debating societies” with “debating clubs”. Debating clubs are in general small entities depending on the school’s Bureau des Eleves (or Student Unions), without having an official status of their own.
For the first time this year, our organization team includes members from both two engineering Grandes Ecoles AND two French Universities.
Now, we are students from the ENST, ECP, Paris Descartes, and Assas, alright, but what are these schools all about?

ENST (Telecom Paristech)

Telecom Paris is, like Centrale Paris, one of the top five engineering Grandes Ecoles in France. It was founded in 1882 to further the extraordinary developments in communication technologies, and to train engineers familiar with them for the Office of Posts and Telegraphs. An integral part of the state-owned telecoms operator until the late XXth century, it has now become independent and, while still home to state-of-the-art research and teaching on the new technologies, it proposes a wide range of courses in Computer Sciences, Electrical Engineering, Economics and Financial Mathematics.

ENST Website
ENST Debating Club Website

ECP (Ecole Centrale Paris)

The history of the ECP dates back to 1829, when it was created as a private school (which means, like, “really private”, not like in Britain) to train leading engineers for the industrial revolution that was going on at the time. It was handed to the French state in 1857 and became fully integrated with the national education system in 1946. It is now one of the top 3 engineering schools in France and has a very broad scope of majors, from mechanical engineering to computer science and finance.

ECP Website

Paris Descartes Medicine Faculty

The Paris Descartes Faculty of Medicine was created in 2004 by fusing three existing faculties : Necker-Enfants Malades, Cochin-Saint Vincent-de-Paul and Broussais-Hôtel Dieu. It is the leading faculty of medicine in France in terms of both student numbers (9,400 in 2010) and results (first Medical Faculty in the AERES ranking system in 2009 ). The Faculty teaches students to become doctors, and subsequently trains them throughout their professional careers. Our teaching has a strong scientific basis, including learning at the patient’s bedside and an initiation into clinical research so as to improve patient's care . Well known abroad, our Faculty offers both excellent training and research programmes thanks to constantly updated teaching programmes, an appropriate use of new technologies, as well as a wide variety of placements in 200 hospital departments.

Paris Descartes Medicine Faculty Website

Panthéon-Assas University

As one of France's leading universities specialised in legal studies, Université Panthéon-Assas fosters diversity and cultivates a real synergy between teaching, research and the business world in four main areas: law and political science, business administration, economics, and information-communication. Combining the expertise of close to 1,500 well-known faculty members and renowned experts in their fields, it offers a wide range of programs that integrate studies abroad and internships. With 238 agreements and partnerships with other schools and universities, law firms and companies in the world, the university is committed to providing study options firmly rooted in the realities of the business world. It offers 20 undergraduate degrees, 90 Master’s degrees, 3 LLMs, an MBA, 23 programs with training contracts, and 12 dual degree programs that draw a total of 18,000 students, including 3,000 international students. In addition, academic contributions from the university’s 25 research centres are further proof of its diversity, energy, academic quality and reactivity.

Panthéon-Assas University