Choosing your program and courses

Depending on the requirements set by the home institution, the choice of modules is flexible.

You may “pick and choose” from the following programs and years as long as the courses do not clash on the different timetables:

• Bachelor CMI program: A four-year International Management and Business program that starts at Freshman year level.

• Master or ESC program: A three-year program, that starts at the junior year level (university level Year 3) and ends at the Master’s level (Year 5).

For those students who possess a high level of French, modules MAY be chosen from the ESC year three program.

Courses at the Saint-Etienne School of Management are organized slightly differently from the undergraduate-graduate scheme in the UK or the USA.
We have:

• A two-year program (freshman and sophomore level) called BTS that resembles the American associate degree program. Our exchange students never take these courses, as they are closer to a vocational program.
• A four-year Bachelor Type program : CMI, or Centre de Management International. This courses train students to become export managers or work in international business, and the courses, many of which are in English, are well situated to our exchange students’ needs.
• A three-year program, Sup De Co, or ESC, that starts at the junior year level (year three) and ends at the master’s level (year five). The students enter the program after completing a two year preparation for the “Grandes Ecoles” or a two year degree university degree. Their career goals maybe linked banking, management, sales, entrepreneurship, etc., depending on their major. Some of the courses are in English and some are well situated to exchange students’ needs.

The courses of all our programs (BTS, CMI, ESC) are numbered according to the year of university studies in which they take place, like in the USA (Please see the course catalogue at the end of this booklet):

BTS and CMI first year courses: 100-199
BTS and CMI second year courses: 200-299
ESC first year courses: 300-399
CMI fourth year courses and ESC second year courses: 400-499
ESC third year courses: 500-599

Although the numbering resembles the American system, there is a big difference in the placement of some of the courses in the program. This is due to the fact that French students finish their “general education requirement” (World Lit, Philosophy, National History, etc.) before university, and begin courses associated with there major as early as the freshman year.
For this reason, courses such as Marketing 116 and Politique 110 on the CMI program are often similar to a junior-level university course in the USA, requiring a level of maturity and coursework that our foreign student find appropriate and challenging. The negotiations course, which I know well, draws upon Sun Tzu, Getting to Yes, the Harvard Project on Negotiation, etc. and is conducted with a scenario that makes us of web-based communication with students abroad. Our foreign students say they learn a lot from it.

Choosing your program and courses