HEC Paris bets on campus overhaul as US student interest grows

HEC Paris is embarking on a major campus overhaul as shifting enrolment trends – including a rise in interest from the US – and disruptions from artificial intelligence and geopolitics prompt the 144-year-old business school to rethink what students need to succeed.

“We are either constructing or renovating 90 per cent of the campus,” Eloïc Peyrache, dean of HEC Paris, told Times Higher Education at his London office. “It’s a huge change.”

The €230 million (£200 million) project, set to begin this year, is the first large-scale redevelopment of the grande école’s campus in Jouy-en-Josas, a south-western outer suburb of Paris, since 1964. Part of the funding will come from a €300 million fundraising campaign led by the HEC Foundation, which hopes to set aside €100 million for the renovation. It is scheduled to finish in 2031 and will cover 40,000 square metres of new and refurbished space, Peyrache explained. 

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Like many of the highly selective French grandes écoles, HEC Paris operates as a non-profit institution. The business school is funded through a hybrid model combining public-private partnership and donations through its foundation.

The ambitious renovations come at a time when business schools are grappling with big changes such as disruptions brought on by artificial intelligence, seismic shifts in global politics and increasing desire among students to pursue entrepreneurship. It is forcing institutions to rethink what students need to succeed.

It also coincides with growing international interest in European universities as shifting immigration policies, funding cuts and concerns over academic freedom have unsettled the higher education sector in the US and elsewhere. Peyrache said HEC had seen a noticeable increase in interest from US students, including those coming from elite American institutions, although he stressed that the school was “not obsessed with the US”.

In the MBA programme, applications from American students rose by about 10 to 15 per cent this year, the school said, a moderate but notable increase after years of stagnation. The shift is more pronounced at the undergraduate level. In the first two rounds of admissions for HEC’s recently launched bachelor’s programme, 38 of the 480 applicants came from the US, representing 8 per cent of the total and making Americans the third-largest nationality group, behind France and Italy. 

Overall, US undergraduate applications are up 75 per cent year-on-year. Peyrache attributes the trend to broader forces rather than targeted recruitment. “Living in the US is more costly, and France today is more friendly in terms of academic freedom,” he said. 

Geopolitics is also increasingly part of the curriculum. Peyrache said incorporating a deeper understanding of how global political changes can affect businesses is integral to remaining a leading business school, especially as global supply chains, economic sanctions and decisions by leaders such as the US president can have a direct impact on how businesses operate.

He stressed that a focus on campus life would remain central to HEC’s approach to learning as it helps foster entrepreneurship – a key focus for the school. Most European business schools do not have traditional American-style residential campuses.

“In other schools, you attend classes and you go back to the city where you’re living,” the dean added. “At HEC, everyone lives on campus. It gives students a chance to come together, take a problem, think about it and find solutions,” he said.

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com