Institut national des sciences appliquées de Rennes

The Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Rennes or INSA de Rennes is a Grande École d'Ingénieurs, a School of Engineering, under the authority of the French Ministry of Education and Research and part of the INSA's group.INSA Rennes was founded in 1966 to train highly qualified engineers, support continuing education, and conduct research and testing. The five-year curriculum aims at training engineers who possess humane qualities and are well versed in the primary areas of science and engineering. The school accommodates 1,400 students in engineering.The education is divided into two parts: the first cycle, which is a highly selective part of the studies and which aims at giving the basis for future engineering studies, the second cycle, for which the students have the choice of 7 specialties. The future engineer chooses here a specialisation, and have then the possibility to pursue a PhD. Some special sections are available: Sports-with-studies combining a good level of education in sport and science, Music-with-Studies Theatre-with-Studies The university is located on a campus called Beaulieu in the east of Rennes.First cycleThe five year academic curriculum starts with a foundation course where students focus on fundamental sciences and then progressively concentrate on specialized areas in science and technology. This generalist preparatory cycle ensures that all INSA engineers acquire a solid background in terms of skills and competence, thus allowing them to reorient their career independently of their initial specialization. The first cycle is the highly selective part of the studies. During the first year the examinations are very hard to test if students are able to continue with their engineering studies.