French Online-MBA legitimate? ("ESC Pau")

Hi friends.

Who knows the Online-MBA program of the "Ecole Superieure de Commerce a Pau"
http://vou.esc-pau.fr/MBA-Info/default.htm

Is it a legitimate (GAAP) program?
My French is not sufficient to prove their "Accreditation" facts
(ESC-Pau is accredited by the Ministry of Education and the Conference de Grande Ecoles.
http://www.education.gouv.fr/

- and, actually, I didn´t even find the "ESC Pau" on the French Governmental website (but maybe that´s due to the fact that ESC Pau isn´t a normal university...

What do you guys think/ know about all this?

Best regards,

Trigger

 

Ooops,
sorry for my mistake with the UBB code.

Here´s the right link:
http://www.education.gouv.fr/

 

The French "Ecoles Superieures de Commerce" are tertiary education institutions. They have been founded by the chambers of commerce.
The following ESC are Grandes Ecoles : Amiens, Bordeaux, Brest, Clermont, Dijon, Grenoble, Le Havre, Lille, Marseille, Montpellier, Pau, Reims, Rennes, Rouen and Toulouse.
In France the Grandes Ecoles are highly regarded,higher than French universities.
The ESC Pau is lawfully accredited and is a Grande Ecole.Therefore an excellent school.
If the online MBA program was EQUIS accredited it would be perfect.

 

I ran the website through Babelfish (http://babelfish.altavista.com/). The accreditation statement seems like it's geared toward convincing people of something that isn't quite true. A good place to check would be the International Handbook of Universities. Also, UNESCO (it's publisher) might respond to an inquiry.

Rich Douglas

 

A little thing troubles me too.They write that they are a member of the European Foundation for Management Development.It's true,but unfortunately their MBA program is not EQUIS accredited.

A venial sin if you consider some facts.

ESC Pau is a Grande Ecole,i.e. it is accredited by the Conference des Grandes Ecoles: http://www.cge.asso.fr/nouveau/Ecoles.html
Among the membersolytechnique,St-Cyr,HEC,l'Ecole Nationale d'Administration, Centrale,l'Ecole Normale Superieure,...

If you want information in English about the French university system and the Grandes Ecoles you can visit: http://www.france.sk/fran-en/13fr.htm

ESC Pau is entiteld by the French Ministry of Education to deliver recognized degrees,therefore ESC Pau is lawfully accredited.The French State validates the degrees from ESC Pau with a signature on the diploma.
Many schools in France offer diplomas that are not validated.It's a good idea to avoid these shools.

The webpage http://www.sup.adc.education.fr/supweb/index4.html should list all the schools,including ESC Pau,who are entitled by the French Ministry of Education to deliver degrees.Unfortunately the list is not complete.The business schools,the Ecoles Normales Superieures and the Grands Etablissements Specifiques haven't been listed yet.

The partner universities of ESC Pau are Leeds, Nottingham,Warwick,Clemson,Temple,Tulane,Goettingen,Uppsala,Bologna,...

ESC Pau meets GAAP,without a doubt.

 

thank you very much, guys.

still, i´m not too sure about this school. it´s not a "university", and it´s not being found directly under the French Ministry of Education´s websites...

Anyone has more information? (any French person here?)

Greets,

Trigger

 

The list has not been completed yet.
You will not be able to find HEC Paris,for example,a famous business school and a partner of the University of Koeln.

Message ecrit sans accentuation.

Je ne pense pas que nous soyons tres nombreux a parler francais parmi ceux qui visitent degreeinfo.com.

Je ne le cache pas,votre message m'a un peu contrarie.J'ai passe plus de vingt ans de ma vie a 15 km de la frontiere francaise,ma premiere langue est le francais,quelques-uns de mes amis les plus chers sont,je vous laisse deviner,ouiiii,francais,et je pense avoir une certaine connaissance de l'enseignement supérieur,encore une fois, francais.


Comme vous semblez preferer des informations provenant directement de l'hexagone,je vous invite a envoyer un email a l'adresse suivante:

Ministere de l'Education nationale, de la Recherche et de la Technologie
Delegation aux relations internationales et a la cooperation
Bureau de l'accueil, de la mobilite et de l'information internationale
173, bd Saint-Germain, 75007 Paris
Tel.: (33-1) 55 55 65 90
Fax: (33-1) 45 44 57 87
Mail.: [email protected]

Don't worry,they speak English.

Si vous vivez encore en Allemagne vous pouvez aussi vous adresser aupres de:
Das Informations- und Dokumentationszentrum für das Studium in Frankreich
CIDU
Maison de France
Kurfürstendamm 211
D - 10719 Berlin
Kurfürstendamm 211
D - 10719 Berlin
Tel.: (030) 885
902 86/85
Fax: (030) 885 902 87
Mail: [email protected]


Pour vous rassurer quant a la legitimite de l'ESC Pau vous pouvez suivre les liens (links) suivants:

Die Franzoesische Botschaft in Deutschland: http://www.botschaft-frankreich.de/

Kultur,Sprache und Bildung

Hochschulwesen und Forschung

Grandes écoles (Elitehochschulen)

Grandes Ecoles Membres

Liste alphabetique des écoles

ESC Pau ist eine private staatlich anerkannte Wirtschafts-Hochschuile,wie die WHU - Otto-Beisheim-Hochschule in Deutschland.


Ulrich

 

Thank you very much, Ulrich. Very helpful.

I also found an official site that states clearly that Pau is a fully respected institution, for those who care:

http://www.cge.asso.fr/nouveau/Ecoles.html


Best regards,

Triggersoft

 

hey,
it seems ESC Pau, after having some trouble with not having AACSB accreditation but only membership, now has a joint MBA program with prestigious swedish "Stockholm University", which is EQUIS accredited (a respected transnational European accreditor).
totally new (and well done) website (in english) also:

http://mba.esc-pau.fr/

let´s hope for them the ESC Pau degree also leads that accreditation...

t.

 

FWIW, here's another old thread about ESC Pau and AASCB: Groupe ESC Pau/Athena University.

 

I used to live in France, and as far as I know, this school is of excellent reputation. Pau is a small town, not too far from Bordeaux, Southern-Western France. This school is well known. ( I don't know about this particular MBA program though) I seem to recall them advertising their programs in a magazine in Paris called the FUSAC, which caters to the Anglo/American expat community. I'm assuming they offer their DL MBA programs in English?

 

Yes,
the MBA program is in English,
and I have been confirmed that their status is legitimate.
Therefore their degrees would also be legal, and GAAP.

But still the question about the intensity of the "cooperation" with Stockholm University remains...

Who is issuing the degree?

ESC Pau and/or Stockholm University?

As far as I understand, ESC Pau can not claim EQUIS accreditation if they offer the degree only under their name, since they are not accredited by EQUIS (Stockholm University is).

T.

 

The lack of accreditation by the AACSB or EQUIS is certainly not a sign of low quality (see Heriot-Watt EBS); however I find highly unethical to have the EQUIS logo dispayed and mention “a relationship” with the AACSB when the institution is clearly not accredited by EQUIS nor AACSB.
Interestingly, another site (www.mbainfo.com) was misled as well: they show ESC-Pau as an AACSB accredited institution.

Moreover, their programme seems to be on the “light” side (no Accounting, no Finance nor Organisational Behaviour courses) & I find questionable for an 12 months MBA programme to include English courses.

Also,

--- “As a High Business school, ESC Pau is an elite, highly selective institution of higher education which accepts students at the Junior level and above.
Students who are accepted after rigorous competition are highly motivated and academically superior. “-----

The statement above sounds good, until one realises that the admission criteria is

---“The following are admission requirements for the Stockholm/ESC-Pau MBA:
· Graduation from an Ecoles de Commerce
· Graduation from an Ecoles d'Ingénieurs
· Graduation from an accredited university with one year of work experience OR one year of graduate work
· One year of professional experience
· English qualified via the TOEFL with a minimum score of 220 or obtained during the first months after admission ------------“

These are vague requirements: they don’t tell you at which level you had to graduate prior to enrolment & are far from being selective (my TOEFL score was over 550 & I still can't spell English properly
To me, the statement above looks like an attempt to flatter the potential student by leading him/her to believe that ESC-Pau is an “elite” “highly selective “institution which calls for “rigorous competition”, a questionable assertion given the admission requirements .
Note that my point is not to advocate that a good school should be highly selective for admission–what matters is the graduation requirements! -but to highlight the many contradictions I 've found in visiting their website.
I would call Equis, the AACSB and the Stockholm University to find out more about ESC-Pau & contrary to what was written earlier in the thread, there are major differences in quality between “Ecoles Supérieure de Commerce” in France.
French is my mother tongue so if you need any help , let me know.

Regards,

Stephan, student@EBS

 

@ stephanluca:

no Accounting, no Finance nor Organisational Behaviour courses

I´ve been reading a little further into the website and also into some other french websites that describe the program: there ARE finance, accounting & so on courses taking place, though they are not listed on the program description where you can only find the "above subject areas", not each course in the level below.

Including English course is rather normal in non-English speaking European universities, but more in the sense of "Business English" than in regular English, which you already learned in high school.

(by the way: my TOEFL was 590, and I took "Business English" in my German university diploma, and I still don´t feel able to manage an American MBA program with those many papers and written assignments...)

Anyway, I´ll try to find out which of these institutions is awarding the degree - if it´s Stockholm University, the whole thing will certainly be a big opportunity.

(if it´s ESC Pau, I´ll think about it deeper, since there is no "University" in it´s name, and therefore people (/HR managers) in Germany would possibly not consider the degree very useful...)

Greets,

Trigger

 

triggersoft & all,

The ESC-Pau is a perfectly legitimate school delivering a perfectly legitimate MBA.

Whether the contents of this MBA suit your requirements is another question.

Note that a number of French Grandes Ecoles have jumped on the MBA bandwagon in the last 10-15 years in order to capitalize on the revenue that is generated by these degrees.

These Grandes Ecoles do not have the same level of experience in delivering MBAs as most American universities.

Regards

 

That question was answered a long time ago,
and is not important anymore.

Important IS (at least for me) whether it´s accredited or not,
since accreditation is getting a bigger and bigger issue these days in Europe (and not only in Germany) also,
since the EU has done several appointments on this topice (key word: "Bologna Declaration"), and more and more HR Managers will ask for "is this MBA accredited?", like the Americans do since years...


Greets,

T.

 

There seems to be some questions on what exactly is a Grand Ecole. For more on the Grand Ecole system, you can go to:

http://www.bath.ac.uk/ewl/ewlecole

I am from the U.S. and I attend a French Grand Ecole (ESC Grenoble). I am very satisfied with the quality of the education and the academic standing of the school.