École nationale d'ingénieurs de Tarbes

École nationale d'ingénieurs de Tarbes (ENIT)

Motto	“Concevons l'avenir”
Motto in English	“Designing the future”
Type	Grande école Public engineering school
Established	1963
Director	Jean-Yves Fourquet
Students	1,200
Location	Tarbes, France 43°13′30″N 0°03′04″E / 43.224928°N 0.051134°E / 43.224928; 0.051134Coordinates: 43°13′30″N 0°03′04″E / 43.224928°N 0.051134°E / 43.224928; 0.051134
Colors	Red
Affiliations	National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, University of Toulouse, ENI group, Geipi-Polytech, Toulouse Tech, CGE, CDEFI, “Elles Bougent”
Website	http://www.enit.fr

The École nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tarbes - ENIT (English: National school of engineers of Tarbes) is a French school of engineering leading to the French “Diplôme d'Ingénieur” under the authority of the French Ministry of Education and Research and part of the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (INPT).^[1] Founded in 1963,^[2] about 200 students graduate from the ENIT each year.
ENIT is part of the ENI group (national schools of engineers), which is a network of 4 French public engineering schools.

Location

ENIT is located in Tarbes in the département of Hautes-Pyrénées, in the Southwest of France 30 km east of Pau and 150 km south of Toulouse. It is about 1 hour 50 minutes drive away from the beach resort of Biarritz and 45 minutes drive away from the main ski resort of the Pyrénées mountain.

Admissions

The main admission (60%^[3]) to the ENIT is made through a selective examination during the year leading to the French “baccalauréat”, most of the successful candidates come from the scientifical stream or “Bac S”.^[4]

There is however further possibilities to join the ENIT later on after 2 years of studies in an University Institutes of Technology, in a Higher School Preparatory Classes, or at the University, the selection being on academic records.^[5]

Foreign students can join ENIT via this traditional engineering studies route or via the exchange route (semester in either French or English).^[6]

Curriculum

ENIT trains general engineers in five years that leads to the “Diplôme d'Ingénieur” degree, which is the equivalent of a five-year Master of Engineering degree (MEng.) or Master of science (MsC) (300 validated ECTS).^[7][8]

Following a “common trunk” of 3 years during which the fundamentals sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry and electronics), engineering sciences (mechanics, design, manufacturing, industrial engineering, industrial IT, materials), and humanities sciences (communication, management, economics + English, espagnol, German languages) are taught, students specialize during the next 2 years in 5 different departments:^[9]

• Mechanical engineering
• Industrial engineering
• Buildings and public works
• Engineering of Materials and Structures and Processes
• Integrated Systems Design

Like most all of the French educational system the ENIT is following the tradition of the Encyclopédistes which focus on breadth rather than depth. It is particularly useful for cross fertilization purposes between different fields. In the final year, students must present a final year project. ENIT emphasizes industrial experience by making it compulsory for students to carry out three internships in industry and an industrially-based final project / master’s thesis:^[10]

• 10 weeks, technical level, in semester 3
• 20 weeks, assistant engineer level, in semester 6
• 20 weeks, professional engineer level, final project in industry / Master's Thesis, in semester 10

The school also delivers master's degrees in research and double degrees in partnership with schools of National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse or foreign schools.^[11]

International Partnerships

ENIT has signed agreements with universities both in and outside the European Union to promote cooperation in education and research activities. These partnerships involve exchange of students and faculty, internship placements for students and promotion of joint activities in training and research. It's a member of the Lifelong Learning Program with numerous partner universities in 28 countries (84 schools partners) ^[12] and it has been awarded the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) by the European Commission.^[13]

Classes of 7, 8 and 9 semesters engineering cycle are open to international students. For a French language course semester, they need a minimum B1 level in French and must have completed 3 years' study at their first university (180 validated ECTS).^[14]

Foreign students can also carry out an English language course semester with the European Project Semester (EPS), which is a 16-week industrial project offered to third, fourth and fifth-year engineering students in the fields of mechanical, industrial, electrical/electronic, IT and materials engineering, etc. ENIT is the only French school partner of this English language exchange program.^[15][16]

ENIT students who want to take part in these exchange programs go through a selective process based on academic criteria. Once a committee of teachers has selected the students, the International Student Office takes care of the mobility process. More than 60% of students at the ENIT have an international experience (Internship or exchange : Erasmus+, “FITEC” program, “LACCEI” program, European project semester, double degree) during their academic studies.

Lecturers can also benefit from the L.L.P. scheme and, accordingly, visiting professors and guest lecturers are invited to give courses at ENIT in English each year.

Laboratory and Research

The “Laboratoire de génie de production” or LGP (English: Production Engineering Laboratory) is housed at the ENIT since 1989. It's part of the research pole of the University of Toulouse and it teams up with the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse (INPT). In 2018, 52 teachers/researchers and 61 doctoral students work in 4 teams:^[17]

• Interfaces and Functional Materials (IMF).
• Mechanics of Materials, Structures and Processes (M2SP).
• Dynamic Decision and Interaction for Systems (DIDS).
• Decision-making and Cognitive Systems (SDC).

Moreover, ENIT is jointly approved in several PhD courses, with 5 doctoral schools.

Student life

The ENIT “Villa”.

ENIT has a wealth of student life which enables each student to express themselves through their interests. Students associations are:^[18]

• Student office “Bureau des élèves”: Brings students together by organising a range of sports, cultural or technical clubs, supporting various promotions and organising major events.
• International Club: Promotes the integration of foreign exchange students into the school, sets up the “Buddy scheme” where ENIT students befriend foreign students.
• House association “Foyer”.
• 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th year student associations.
• Various clubs: “Cacophony” (music), “Sono Sam” (sound), aero-modelling, mechanics, mountain, skiing, motorcycling, photography, geek, gala association, etc.

See also

References