Impact on talent inclusion
Diversity, whether social or international, is a key factor in the performance of any academic institution. It gives individuals the opportunity to learn from others from diverse backgrounds, develop a global outlook and engage in the major changes ahead.
What will your donations help us to achieve?
Diversity in our student body in terms of culture, background and viewpoints makes for a uniquely vibrant environment at HEC. This helps us attract top international students and train responsible leaders in an increasingly open and multicultural society.Associate Dean, HEC Paris MBA program
2024 projects for talent inclusion
- Overcome self-censorship prior to the competitive HEC entrance exam
Fighting against the self-censorship that limits young people in their educational choices and encouraging them to dream bigger are fundamental aspects of the policy carried out for high school and preparatory class students. Confidence-building is the watchword of HEC’s equal opportunity programs.Our goal is to support 400 high school students from disadvantaged and rural areas to ensure that 100% of them pass their Baccalaureate exam with honors and enroll in ambitious higher education programs.
Similarly, we will support 400 scholarship students in preparatory classes every year with the goal ofensuring that 100% of them enroll in French business schools.
- Affirm our commitment to equal opportunity
Since 2009, tuition fees for students who receive scholarships based on social criteria established by CROUS have been entirely or partially covered by the HEC Foundation.
This funding measure has had a dramatic impact on the proportion of CROUS scholarship students at HEC, which has increased from 5% in 2009 to 15% in 2019. Within the Grande Ecole program 18% benefit from means-tested financial aid from the HEC Foundation. We must now intensify our efforts with an aim for scholarship students to represent more than 25% of our student body, while maintaining our standards for excellence.
- Promote exchange by creating the “HEC Village”
By creating dedicated spaces for clubs andassociations, sports facilities, shared kitchens, a family area, a dance studio, an administrative service center and more, we plan to create an array of student spaces where art, a source for inspiration and innovation, will play an integral role, in an effort to improve quality of life and promote exchanges between students.
- Develop students’ soft skills
Soft skills are essential to working as a team,becoming an inspiring leader and are sought by companies of all sizes. Through its Career Center, HEC Paris strives to support all students in degree programs who want to learn more about themselves and fine-tune their career goals as a result.
- Consolidate HEC Paris’ position as a top-ranked international business school
One of the keys to HEC Paris’ success is its ability to attract top international students from the world’s most prestigious institutions. This diversity acts as a driving force for promoting the HEC trademark among leading global recruiters. At the same time, cultural differences in the classroom give students a preview of the intercultural career opportunities that await them.
- Develop international representative offices
Today HEC Paris is present in London, Berlin, New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Abidjan and Qatar.
Expanding our offices means supporting the HEC trademark in countries where the school is not yet represented and making the HEC trademark more visible in major global business hubs such as Hong Kong, Singapore, San Francisco, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Nairobi, Lagos etc.
Lastly, it provides an opportunity to develop relationships with companies or local employers in connection with the Corporate Partnerships and Careers Department and to support Alumni services.
- Africa, a challenge for the future
Africa has an important role to play, both demographically and economically. Training its elite is a major challenge facing the continent.
HEC supports this challenge by offering training programs for business executives, helping creat promising start-ups and financing the education of its finest talents.
Your impact
It is with your help taht I was able to study in the best possible conditions. As a scholar of the HEC Foundation, I felt supported by HEC Alumni.Student, Media, Art and Creation at HEC Paris
Achievements already made possible through donations
Talent is all around us, but sometimes it needs a little help to fully reveal itself. This is why the Michelin Foundation was so keen to get involved with the deployment of HEC Paris’ Equal Opportunities Mission. The objective is clear: to give everybody the chance to succeed, regardless of their social or geographical origins.
The Michelin Foundation has now signed a three-year partnership with the HEC Foundation, in order to support our work to support high school pupils and students in the Île-de-France and Auvergne Rhône- Alpes regions. The aim of this partnership is to expand the HEC Foundation’s actions in the company’s home region.
For the past 3 years, HEC Paris, HEC Alumni and the HEC Foundation have been running a mentoring scheme for means-tested scholarship students, operating with the help of volunteers. The goal is to offer advice and pointers on starting out in the professional world and developing their network. After launching with 20 mentors in 2019, the program now has a total of 55.
"Thanks to the partnership with the Foundation, our mentors receive support from the Article 1 non-profit organization. Mentors are HEC alumni with at least 5 years ofprofessional experience, working in sectors connected to the students’ areas of interest. We pair them up and they meet once a month for the first 6 months, in person or remotely, in order to forge a lasting connection" explains Andrée Aubert-Theisen (H.77), a member of the coordinating team for the HEC Volunteering program.
Launched in 2019, the PACT Africa program (Support Program for African Talents) has enabled 5 talented students from Ivory Coast to prepare and succeed the international entrance exam and be admitted to HEC Paris in September 2020. The aim of the program is to double the number of students from sub-saharan and southern Africa in the HEC Paris Grande Ecole program within 5 years. It is based on the Dual Diploma agreement signed in 2017 between HEC Paris and the National Polytechnic Institute in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, and will expand to other countries in the region with the support of the HEC Office in the Ivory Coast.
For the 2022 academic year, 13 PACT Africa students have been admitted to HEC Paris.
Thanks to the generosity of our patrons, the project is growing and now covers 3 countries: Gabon, Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire! This year 75 students were supported, 29 were eligible for HEC Paris and 13 have just been admitted for the 2022 school year!
For the past 10 years, the “HEC For All” program has been providing financial support to preparatory class students through needs-based scholarships.
In 2018, this program involved 14 partner high schools, primarily in Paris. In 2019, it was expanded to cover the whole of France and almost 280 applications from 70 high schools were submitted. As a result, 261 scholarships to cover living expenses were offered in 2019 to preparatory class scholarship students (compared with 150 in previous years). The objective is to increase the number of scholarships funded each year from 250 to 400 scholarship students.
In 2020, the HEC Foundation awarded 452 living grants of an average €400 to CROUS scholarship students to support them with their living expenses. These grants are awarded to students enrolled in a Business School preparatory class who obtained their French Baccalauréat with distinction. This grant represents a form of encouragement for these students.
In February 2021, the Foundation awarded 530 living cost scholarships (452 in 2020) to CROUS scholarship students enrolled in Grande École Preparatory Classes (CPGE). The scheme went national in 2019, and is now present in over 120 establishments with CPGE preparing students for the HEC entrance examination. Above and beyond the financial support on offer, these scholarships provide a great motivation boost to students just a few weeks before their exams, constituting a clear show of support from HEC.
More information about inclusion talent at HEC Paris
