science po
Laurence Souloumiac, Director of Centre for Asia, Sciences Po, Paris, talks about the relevance of Social Sciences in today’s time and how students can become job ready as social scientist.
1. What is Sciences Po?
Sciences Po is an international research university, both selective and open to the world, ranking among the finest institutions in the fields of humanities and social sciences.
2. What according to you is the relevance of Social Science today?
Social science is a study of society and us. It helps in studying people's behaviour.
Through social sciences we can know of people's political choices, financial opinions, and emotional responses.
Economics, sociology, political science, law, history are disciplines that help us to connect with the world at large to influence informed decision making for the future.
Today, in the era of internet with information accessible in only one click and artificial intelligence on the way to occupy more and more areas of the professional world, we need social sciences to take a distance.
3. How would a Bachelor’s of Arts programme be of help to students?
At Sciences Po, students get training in five social sciences (Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Law and History) with a regional specialisation.
This component of the programme focuses on a specific region of the world through a broad lens of social sciences and humanities.
The programme is entirely taught in English. However, students build their CVs by learning French as a foreign language and an additional language out of the twenty five foreign languages available on campus if they wish to.
This BA helps students develop a robust foundation in multiple disciplines in order to understand the complexity of the world.
This understanding will reflect in their future academic life irrespective of their specialisation at the Masters level.
It also prepares them to occupy leading positions in a multi-dimensional reality. Sciences Po graduates are goal oriented with high agility. They are trained to respond to varied interests and work with multiple stakeholders. Multidisciplinary helps achieving the understanding of different perspectives.
4. How is the programme at Sciences Po different from other schools?
The programme is international with the presence of 50% of international students, 25 foreign languages, seven regional focuses and a compulsory year abroad component for all students.
We have established partnerships with 470 of the universities in social sciences across the world for student exchange programmes.
5. How would the revamped multidisciplinary programme focus on humanities, civic engagement and distinct regional specialisations all together?
It is indeed a lot and Sciences Po students get little time off aside of their studies. All students pursue History, Politics, Economics, Sociology and Law in the first year along with one class in Humanities. International relations are blended in to the curriculum through the regional focus students have chosen. Three majors are introduced in the second year namely; Economy and Society, Politics and Governance, Political Humanities.
Students spend their third year abroad at a partner university. Last but not the least, the civic engagement programme runs across the three years and culminates with a capstone project that students have to complete at the end of their third year. It is important for students of Sciences Po to be in touch with the society at large and this why the curriculum has included compulsory components in civic engagement and humanities.
6. How would this make students jobs ready?
Upon completion of the BA, most of our students pursue graduate studies at one of Sciences Po's seven schools but some graduates choose to enter the job market directly after the undergraduate education in the fields of banking, finance, consultancies, city planning, public affairs, International organisations, to name a few.
We also have a dedicated Sciences Po careers office that works tirelessly to help students with job hunting, internship announcements, CV building etc. In fact, 90% of our graduates find employment within 6 months of graduation.
In addition, Sciences Po has a unique tradition of involving career professionals on the taught programmes. This helps students to widen their knowledge through the perspective of the practitioners on the one hand and to network with the best of the best companies on the other.
Moreover, Sciences Po has trained 5 French Presidents, 13 Prime Ministers and Heads of many fortune 500 companies. Our alumni network stands at 65,000 alumni, and this formidable network facilitates future employment of Sciences Po graduates.
