From La Rochelle to Paris... Excelia is continuing its growth strategy.
From La Rochelle to Paris... Excelia is continuing its growth strategy with its Business School now having a campus in Paris, a centre of excellence in higher education.
From the start of the 2022 academic year, business and management students will benefit from this scientific and technological ecosystem which is perfect for fostering partnerships. And, furthermore, they will find themselves at the heart of many cutting-edge sectors!
Adapting to the latest challenges in higher education
With its strong local presence in La Rochelle, Excelia Business School (formerly Sup de Co La Rochelle) has undergone a transformation to meet the latest challenges in higher education.
This change initially took the form of a profound overhaul of its educational offer. It was no longer a question of offering programmes only in management and business, but rather of establishing five multi-disciplinary schools offering programmes up to Master level:
- Excelia Business School
- Excelia Tourism School
- Excelia Digital School
- Excelia Executive Education (offering continuing professional development courses)
This diversification strategy has been accompanied by innovative approaches to teaching that place great importance on ‘experiential learning’, as confirmed by Bruno Neil, Excelia's CEO. In fact, experimentation in the field is the backbone on which the acquisition of skills, currently demanded by the business world, is based. An international focus continues to be another important element in the school’s strategy.
In addition, the school was fully aware of the rapid changes taking place in the business world and the international arena, and made a decision to leave its comfort zone. In 2019 and 2020, two new campuses were opened in Tours and Orleans. Yet the school is still looking even further ahead and already preparing for the future… by establishing a campus in the capital. Excelia explored several possibilities over a two-year period, and it finally settled on Paris, where it will open for the 2022 academic year. Why here? To join a fast-growing higher education hub, placing the school in an environment of excellence.
A fertile environment…
This new location means that our Business School students will be at the heart of a centre of higher education excellence that brings together numerous scientific sectors. For the moment, only the Business School's BBA International will be offered there, but in the very near future, Excelia intends to deploy the Master in Management and continuing education courses. By 2025, the group hopes to offer a wide enough choice of programmes to attract more and more students.
There are many advantages for those who decide to study on the campus of AIVANCITY: numerous student services and sports facilities on site; many shops; more accessible housing; and a location that is close to the French capital, with excellent public transport links. Beyond these material advantages, what the school seeks to achieve most of all is to offer a campus of the highest quality.
By getting involved in the "Alliance pour les Sciences et la Technologie Paris", Excelia, just like the major engineering schools already located there, is committed to becoming an important player within this higher education hub. In practical terms, this means that the school will contribute to the pooling of strengths and resources, along with the other schools on site. Students will therefore have the opportunity to meet up and share experiences, and even get involved in joint student activities and projects. The main objective is to encourage interaction between students and teachers throughout the site in order to develop valuable partnerships.
…for "skills hybridisation"
In fact, choosing to be located at Paris is very much in line with the school’s strategy of ‘skills hybridisation’. Excelia is fully committed to ensuring that its students acquire the necessary skills expected by today’s companies. Testimonials from students, who have studied on the most established campuses, highlight the benefits of practical experience and teamwork. Over and above the more conventional academic learning approaches, placing students in real-life situations gives them the opportunity to acquire the essential Soft Skills for their future professional lives.
It is precisely this educational approach that our school intends to implement on the Paris campus, whilst at the same time benefitting from another important aspect: the hybridisation of skills. By having contact with students from engineering schools as well as students from scientific and technological disciplines, our Business School students will benefit from an environment conducive to dialogue and exchange, and discover other ways of thinking and doing. In this respect, a partnership is already in place with ISIT, a major Business School for Intercultural Management, Languages and Communications.
An ambitious project for Excelia Business School? Yes, as it means providing students with the necessary academic teaching and Soft Skills to enable them to evolve in an increasingly international and highly versatile world of work.
