Taking French education global
As part of this mission, we are committed to ensuring students can access high-quality education in as cost-effective a way as possible.
We have recognised the quality and reputation of French higher education and are committed to widening opportunities for many more students around the world to benefit from it. As part of our strategy to achieve this, we will be seeking to establish campuses for our French institutions at key locations in both Europe and Asia.
In October of 2023, GEDU acquired Paris-based École de Management Appliqué (EMA). EMA is an école privée supérieure, or private higher education institution, providing accessible education with high-quality practical learning. Courses focus on law, finance and economics, offered in both English and French, which attracts talent from a range of international locations.
Students are taught by professors who have significant connections to industry leaders. This means students not only receive relevant, hands-on learning, but also have the chance to develop their professional network before they graduate.
One month later, GEDU acquired Schiller International University. Now in its 61st year. Schiller gives students the unique opportunity to complete each year of their degree in a different international location, with campuses across Spain, France, Germany and the US.
This means they graduate with a much more global perspective. Schiller chose Paris as one of its locations to immerse students in one of the most important political, diplomatic and cultural capitals in the world, an experience they can export and draw upon in their future academic and professional lives.
In December of 2024, GEDU announced a partnership with triple-accredited (AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA) business school, ICN. ICN is an established institution, now in its 120th year, with three campuses across Paris, Nancy and Berlin, and is ranked among the top 1% of business schools globally.
Their courses consistently rank highly in the QS World University Rankings. It’s genuinely a privilege they have chosen to work with GEDU to help them achieve their aim of being a world leader in business education.
We have recognised the quality and reputation of French higher education and are committed to widening opportunities for many more students around the world to benefit from it
We are working closely with them to boost their offering in both Nancy and Paris and seeking to help them launch new locations outside of France within the next few years. This will mean they have a really solid footprint on the global stage from which to achieve their ambitions.
The higher education sector is becoming increasingly competitive around the world, which is why it’s critical the right providers are given a launchpad to expand their offering and positively impact as many students as possible by maximising the choice available to them.
Critical to our mission to export this high-quality French learning to the world, is a positive relationship with governments at all levels. In January of this year, GEDU Group CEO Dr Vishwajeet Rana, ICN managing director Professor Florence Legros and myself met with former minister of higher education and research, and current president of the Regional Council of Île-de-France, Valérie Pécresse, at her office in Paris.
We discussed the growing opportunities across the international education sector, and outlined GEDU’s plans to help take French education to high-growth global markets, building on the foundations we already have in place.
There really is no limit to what can be achieved when partnerships are forged that explore new and exciting markets.
About the author: Professor Ray Lloyd is deputy CEO at GEDU. Until recently, he was also the CEO of Global Banking School (GBS), one of the institutions that forms part of the GEDU group. He was previously deputy vice-chancellor at Leeds Trinity University and a head of department and then a Dean at Abertay University. Professor Lloyd’s first degree was in mathematics, a subject he taught for several years both in London and then Botswana, where he also served as director of coaching for their track and field association. He returned to the UK in 1996 to undertake a Master’s degree in sports science, later gaining a PhD in the same discipline and combined his academic activities with a number of roles in elite sport in the UK.
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