Midterm season is upon us, and like a lot of you back in Ottawa, here in Paris we too are struggling with our galops and exposés – a whole other breed of midterm exams and presentations. This has allowed for an entirely new approach to bonding between exchange students. Whereas at the start of the semester an introduction started with “Where are you from?” followed by “Sarpsborg? No, I don’t know where that is”, it now begins with “How are your courses going?” and ends with “Whatever, I just need to pass” – five words that don’t come easy to the average student at Sciences Po Paris – an institution that was ranked higher than both Oxford and Yale a few years back.
There seems to be a general consensus amongst the exchange students here that the Sciences Po teaching and evaluation system is unlike anything we’ve come across at our home universities. Most of us have had no trouble writing it off as completely senseless and backwards. We will rant to anyone who will listen (or won’t for that matter) about the impossibility of fitting such or such subject into the required expose structure or about the unfairness of having 70% of your final grade riding on a single paper. However, considering that the school has produced most of France’s political elite for the past century and a half, calling the system backwards and senseless doesn’t seem fair. So I figured I would open up the debate to my UofO colleagues and let you all judge for yourselves. Below I’ve compiled a quick overview of Sciences Po’s way of doing things to satisfy the curiosity of those of you also avoiding schoolwork.
Firstly, let me point out that the universities in France are generally more specialized than in Canada and will usually focus on a single field of study or have clearly defined and separate faculties. Sciences Po for example, the full name of which is l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, focuses strictly on the social sciences, namely political science and international relations, but also offers programs in history, economics, and journalism. Its teaching and evaluation methods are also quite distinct from other higher institutions in France, so what I’m about to describe by no means applies to all French institutions of higher learning.
Length and Structure of Program
The undergraduate cycle at Sciences Po lasts three years. All undergraduate students take more or less the same standardized list of courses, with some leeway. The third year of study must be spent on an exchange abroad, so the university doesn’t actually offer any third-year courses. After finishing a rather standardized three-year Bachelor, the students must do a two-year Sciences Po Master’s program at which point they get to specialize in a particular field such as political science, law or journalism.
So all in all, it is a five-year program, which consists of three years in a standardized undergraduate social science program (with the third year spent abroad) and two years of a specialized Master’s program.
Course Material
What surprised me most about Sciences Po, even before setting foot in Paris, was the types of courses offered at the undergraduate level. Unlike at the UofO where most of our courses are a rather general cross-section of such or such subject (ie: “Introduction to International Relations and Global Politics”, “Conflict Resolution and Peace Building”), a very large part of SciencesPo courses, especially the electives, focus on very specific topics (ie: “Violence, Memory and Amnesia : Political Conflicts in XXth Century Chile”, “Inventer la ville: un recit à partir de Google Street View®, révélateur de notre expérience du monde”). That is not to say that courses like “Les grandes questions du droit” don’t exist here, but that there seems to be more opportunity to study certain subjects in closer detail.
The university also offers sport and art classes for credit; anything from tennis, to tango, to rowing; from painting, to the exploration of Paris through writing, to baroque dance choreography. That last one is exactly what it sounds like: we spend the better part of two hours learning baroque dance choreography to Lully and Vivaldi. I’m still not entirely certain where the marks will come from for most of these classes, but at least my tennis serve is getting better and I’ve learned how to dance a decent tango.
Evaluation
This, more than anything else, has been difficult to wrap my head around, and I don’t seem to be the only one struggling to understand what exactly is going on.
From what I’ve gathered, most courses are evaluated in four parts: one individual exposé (oral presentation) worth about 15%, one group exposé also worth about 15%, a participation mark not exceeding 10% and a final paper to make up the rest of the grade – so generally 60% or more of the final mark. The assignments vary from course to course, but this is at least how the majority of my courses are structured. Some courses have both midterms and final exams; I have been lucky enough to avoid both. A larger course load is generally given in the lecture courses which are worth 10 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) credits each and consist of four hours of class a week, as opposed to the elective and seminar courses which earn you 4 ECTS credits and have 2 hours of class a week.
Now, for the most dearly loved part of Sciences Po tradition: the exposé. This oral presentation ranging from 8 to 15 minutes, done either individually or in a pair, uses a structure that dates back to the 18th century and is applied not only for presentations, but also reading digests and essays. It looks something like this: Introduction (makes up about a third of your expose and includes your Problématique – the question you have asked yourself), Part I (includes Subpart A and Subpart B), Part II (includes Subpart A and Subpart B). A conclusion is generally not necessary. Note that if you have been asked to compare two things, you must compare them throughout the exposé, and not separate them into Part I and Part II and compare in the conclusion. If you have been asked to compare three things, well good luck with that. I’m sure it is an exceptionally logical way of structuring a presentation or an essay – I have seen more than one Sciences Po student master it beautifully and can recognize it in the work of some French writers – but I have yet to make sense of it myself.
So there you have it, the Sciences Po way of going about things, for better or for worse. It’s certainly a way of learning and grading most of the exchange students here aren’t used to, but is it worse than what we have in Canada, Germany, or Chile? That’s up for debate. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Good luck to everyone with their midterms and à la prochaine!
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