Understanding the "Grande Ecole" French system

Toulouse INP-ENSIACET is a graduate engineering school. It is part of the “Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse” (Toulouse INP) that has the university status. Toulouse INP is also part of the “Université de Toulouse”, which is a federal university college.
Toulouse INP-ENSIACET has a small number of students (300 per year for five departments) because of the highly competitive recruitment system.

The French system

After High School, the best students (admitted on their curriculum) follow two years of intensive courses in mathematics, physics and chemistry in the "classes préparatoires". At the end, students take a national competitive examination. This allows them to enter one of the “Grandes Ecoles” such as Toulouse INP-ENSIACET. 

Consequently, the school provides education during 3 years required to earn a French engineering degree, which is a higher degree than Bachelor and equivalent to Master.

French engineers are recognized and appreciated by the industry and can easily integrate doctoral programmes either in France or abroad.

The Toulouse INP-ENSIACET system

In this system, it appears that ENSIACET students at the end of the first year have a third academic year’s level, equivalent to a Bachelor's degree.

During the third year (equivalent to 5th year), engineering students follow 1 of the 15 5^th year specialization curriculums (parcours) offered by Toulouse INP-ENSIACET.

The subjects are organised into course units (UE for "Unités d'Enseignement" in French). Each semester has 4 or 5 course units in a fixed programme and not at choice. A semester is 30 European credits (ECTS).

It should be noted that with the "classes préparatoires", the first year ENSIACET engineering students already have extensive knowledge in mathematics, which allows to learn the entire engineering curriculum in just three years.