INSEAD

INSEAD, a contraction of "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" (lit. 'European Institute of Business Administration'), is a non-profit graduate business school that maintains campuses in France (Europe Campus), Singapore (Asia Campus), and the United Arab Emirates (Middle East Campus). INSEAD is a part of the Sorbonne University Alliance and the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance. Its degree programmes are postgraduate-only, taught in English and include a full-time Master of Business Administration (MBA), an Executive MBA (EMBA), Master in Management (MIM), Doctor of Business Administration (PhD), Executive Master of Finance (EMFin) and executive education programmes.

History


INSEAD was founded in 1957 by venture capitalist Georges Doriot, Claude Janssen, and Olivier Giscard d'Estaing. Original seed money was provided by the Paris Chamber of Commerce. The school was originally based in the Château de Fontainebleau, before moving to its current Europe Campus in 1967.

Doriot, a professor at Harvard Business School and a General in US Army during World War II, wanted an institution that would introduce business education to Europe and bring European businessmen together post-war. In 1955, he presented his idea of creating a new school of management and business administration to the Paris Chamber of Commerce, whose presidents, Jean Marcou and Philippe Dennis, not only funded the venture but also became first presidents of the school. The welcoming ceremony of the first promotion for the Master of Business Administration at the Château de Fontainebleau was held on 12 September 1959. Almost 110 candidates had applied, 62 were admitted and 57 attended the first course. The official inauguration took place on 9 October 1959, at the Château de Fontainebleau 5.

Initial classes were taught in three languages: English, French and German, interchangeably. Until the 1990s, classes could still be taught in any of the three languages. As of now, all classes are taught in English, but the school still requires students to know any three languages for graduation.

In 2000, the school opened another campus in Singapore. In 2012, INSEAD became a founding member of the Sorbonne University Alliance, moving toward a merger with leading specialist institutions in other fields to create a top-tier multidisciplinary university.

Campuses
The original campus (the INSEAD Europe Campus) is located in Fontainebleau, near Paris, France. INSEAD's second campus (the INSEAD Asia Campus) is in the one-north district of the city-state of Singapore next to one-north MRT station. The third campus (the INSEAD Middle East Campus) is located in Abu Dhabi. INSEAD expanded its presence to North America in 2020 with the opening of the INSEAD San Francisco Hub for Business Innovation. INSEAD follows the US model of a business school. INSEAD has been a pioneer in setting up a multi-campus business school as a way to increase the global presence and nature of its faculty and curriculum and to reflect the global diversity of its international student and participant population. A Harvard Business School case study, for instance, explores its approach to business education in a global context and how it functions with a multi-campus setting.

Grande école system
INSEAD is a grande école, a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the French public university system. Similar to the Ivy League in the United States, Oxbridge in the UK, and the C9 League in China, grandes écoles are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process. Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France.

Although they are more expensive than public universities in France, grandes écoles typically have much smaller class sizes and student bodies, and many of their programmes are taught in English. International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of the grandes écoles. Many of the top-ranked business schools in Europe are members of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE), as is INSEAD, and out of the 250 business schools in France, only 39 are CGE members. In addition to the French Ministry of Education (Le Ministère de L'éducation Nationale), INSEAD is further accredited by the elite international business school accrediting organizations and it holds the much coveted Triple accreditation: The European Foundation for Management Development (EQUIS), The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), and Association of MBAs (AMBA).

Master in Management (MIM)
The Master in Management programme is targeted to younger individuals with 0–2 years of experience and consists of coursework in both the Europe and Asia Campuses, with optional field trips to China, Abu Dhabi, and San Francisco. The programme ranked 4th in the 2022 QS Business Masters Rankings for Management.

MBA programme
INSEAD MBA participants can take the MBA core courses at either or both of its Europe and Asia Campuses (as well as an MBA period at its Middle East Campus). They follow the same core courses in parallel regardless of campus, and there are faculty who teach on both the Europe and Asia Campuses as well as permanent faculty at each of the three campuses who live and work in the respective regions. Approximately 20% of the class entered the MBA programme with other graduate or professional degrees; including medical doctors, lawyers, and PhDs.

INSEAD offers two MBA schedules per year: one starting in September which takes ten months to complete, and a 12-month promotion starting in January for students who want to complete a summer internship.

Executive MBA programme
INSEAD has two Executive MBA programmes. The Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) and the Tsinghua INSEAD EMBA (TIEMBA). Both EMBA programmes are master-level degree programmes that take place on a part-time, modular basis.

The programmes offer experienced business executives an intensive 14–17-month modular course that takes place in modular periods (approximately every six to seven weeks). Each period on campus is between one and two weeks' duration. For the GEMBA programme the physical time on campus represents 12 weeks in total with participants going to all three campuses (Fontainebleau (France), Abu Dhabi and Singapore). For the TIEMBA programme the physical time on campus represents 12 weeks in total with participants alternating between Tsinghua's campus in Beijing, China and the INSEAD campus in Singapore.

Both the GEMBA and TIEMBA programmes include a schedule of group coaching, 360-degree assessments and team activities designed to develop a leadership style, called the Leadership Development Programme.

Executive Master in Change
INSEAD Executive Master in Change (EMC) is a specialised executive master's degree that provides a grounding in basic drivers of human behavior and the hidden dynamics of organisations. INSEAD EMC integrates business education with a range of psychological disciplines, and prepares participants to assume roles in leading organisations, drive individual and organisational development, and successfully execute change management.

This programme offers a unique transformational experience, with a clinical approach which implies that real-life situations are examined – as opposed to "theoretical" knowledge. All of the programme's learning is derived from real life or can be applied to it. The programme is designed to provide a safe, reflective transitional space, where participants have the opportunity to step back, gain perspective and even experiment with themselves.

Spread over 18 months, EMC consists of eight on-campus modules of three to four days each. In addition, participants have a total of 60 hours of "practicum" (various experiences designed to apply the course content and bring the clinical perspective alive) as well as written work, readings and group calls. The programme concludes with a Master Thesis.

Executive Master in Finance
INSEAD Executive Master in Finance (EMFin) teaches participants finance and accounting skills on a par with those taught in an MBA programme, and also offers leadership and management perspectives. The programme is offered in a modular format over a 18-month period to allow professionals to study while continuing to work. Participants take time off from work for each of the six modules (two weeks each) to take classes on campus and continue working in between.

PhD programme
The INSEAD PhD in Management is a doctoral degree in business to prepare students for a career in academia. It requires four to five years of full-time study – the first two years devoted to coursework, while from the third and fourth (or sometimes fifth) years dedicated to research and dissertation. Students have the option to start their studies on either the Asia (Singapore) or Europe (France) Campus and do an exchange in North America (USA) through the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance. There are eight areas of specialisation: Accounting, Decision Sciences, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Marketing, Organisational Behavior, Strategy, and Technology and Operations Management. INSEAD offers fellowships, whereby students receive full tuition fee waiver, annual stipend and research support funding.

Business Foundations programme
INSEAD in collaboration with Sorbonne Université offers the dual degree: Business Foundations (BFC) programme which is one of INSEAD's most selective degrees. "BFC" is tailored for recent master or PhD graduates from the sciences, medicine, humanities, engineering and law. Both universities offer fellowships to selected students.

Executive education
INSEAD holds both company/firm specific and open enrolment executive education programmes at its locations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America, as well as in partnership with corporate universities. The school offers programmes in-person, online, and virtually. Participants usually come from senior or top management, with many years of experience within their company or industry and younger 'high-potentials' identified as being key in succession strategies within their companies. Approximately 10,000+ executives of around 180+ nationalities undertake courses or programmes at INSEAD each year.

Open programmes
The INSEAD Executive Education Open Programmes, include more than 60 offerings, covering all business disciplines as well as specific industries and world regions.

Certificates
INSEAD offers six certificates: The Certificate in Global Management, the Certificate in Negotiation, two Certificates in Corporate Governance, the INSEAD Online Certificate: Leading in a Transforming World and the new INSEAD LEAD Certificate.

Rankings and reputation
INSEAD admits no more than 12% of students of the same nationality. Its MBA program has produced the second-highest number Fortune 500 CEOs, behind Harvard Business School. It is also amongst the largest 20 producers of ultra high-net-worth individuals, and is among the top 10 producers of billionaire alumni amongst global MBA programs.

For entrepreneurship, INSEAD estimates around half of their alumni found a company at some point in their careers. Pitchbook's 2023 analysis found INSEAD was fourth worldwide in terms of capital raised, founder count, and company count (only behind Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton) As of 2022, INSEAD graduates have founded 18 unicorns, making the school the top unicorn producing university in Europe. Approximately 800 alumni of the school founded more than 700 companies, which in total have raised $23 billion. As of 2023, Harvard University, Stanford University, and INSEAD are the only three universities to top Poets and Quants's list of most-funded startup by MBA students.

The INSEAD MBA programme ranked first in 2021, 2017 and 2016 in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking. The dual degree Executive MBA with Tsinghua University is consistently ranked in the top ten by the Financial Times.

Alumni
The INSEAD alumni community consists of 68,861 individuals across 179 countries with 171 nationalities.