ESCP Business School (French: École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris) is a European business school and French grande école specialising in management, business and finance. Founded in Paris in 1819, it is one of the earliest institutions established specifically for business education and is widely identified as the world's oldest business school.
ESCP is regarded as one of Europe's leading business schools and forms part of the highly selective French grande école system. Its programmes have regularly placed among the highest-ranked internationally in the Financial Times business-education rankings. The school was ranked fourth among European business schools in the Financial Times European Business Schools ranking in 2025, while its Master in Finance was ranked first worldwide in the newspaper's pre-experience Masters in Finance ranking for four consecutive editions through 2026.
It is, along with HEC and ESSEC, a member of the Parisiennes, an informal term designating the three most prestigious business schools in France.
Contents
History
The school was established in Paris on 1 December 1819 by two former Napoleonic soldiers, Germain Legret and Amédée Brodart. Germain Legret had founded two business schools in Paris in 1815 and 1818, but both closed their doors rapidly. ESCP offered entrepreneurship education in the 1820s. It was modelled on the first grande école, the École Polytechnique, founded by Lazare Carnot and Gaspard Monge, but was initially more modest, in large part because it had not been supported by the state. The school, with its commercial museum, had gained international exposure since the 1820s, but it was not the only business school open to international students.. Its stature and importance ascended during the 19th century and it moved to its current Parisian location on the Avenue de la République in 1898.
In 1828, the project to put the school under the authority of the French Ministry of Commerce and Industry failed. The school remained independent by the intervention of Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui, who took it over. Several times during the first half of the 19th century, French political developments resulted in plans to group ESCP with elite French engineering schools such as the École Polytechnique or the École Centrale Paris, but this ultimately did not happen. At the time, engineering schools in France and in Europe taught future businessmen. From 1838, the French state began to fund scholarships meant for ESCP's students.
In 1869, the Paris Chamber of Commerce took over the school, aiming to train future business leaders in modern methods in commerce and industry. In 1892, ESCP set up selective admissions processes, which continued to be retained and, today, take the form of competitive exams.
On 5 April 1973, the concept of a multi-campus business school was created, with consecutive inaugurations of campuses taking place in the United Kingdom (London in 1974, move to Oxford in 1975) and in Germany (Düsseldorf in 1975, move to Berlin in 1985). In 1974 the ESCP developed courses in entrepreneurship in response to internal and external forces. Since then, the school has deepened its European presence to become an integrated pan-European business school. In 2018, ESCP became an École consulaire, largely financed by the public Chambers of Commerce in Paris, Berlin, and Turin.
In 1985, the School's campus in Germany moved from Düsseldorf to Berlin at the invitation of the Government of Berlin.
Grande école degrees
ESCP Business School is a grande école, a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and often connected to, the main framework of the French public university system. Grandes écoles are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process, and a significant proportion of their graduates occupy the highest levels of French society. Similar to Ivy League universities in the United States, Oxbridge in the UK, and the C9 League in China, graduation from a grande école is viewed as the ideal prerequisite credential for any top government, administrative and corporate position in the nation.
The degrees are accredited by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles and awarded by the French Ministry of National Education. Higher education business degrees in France are organized into three levels thus facilitating international mobility: the Licence, or Bachelor's degrees, and the Master's and Doctoral degrees. The Bachelors and the Masters are organized in semesters: 6 for the Bachelors and 4 for the Masters. Those levels of study include various "parcours" or paths based on UE (Unités d'enseignement or Modules), each worth a defined number of European credits (ECTS). A student accumulates those credits, which are generally transferable between paths. A Bachelors is awarded once 180 ECTS have been obtained (bac + 3); a Masters is awarded once 120 additional credits have been obtained (bac +5). The highly coveted PGE (Programme Grande École) ends with the degree of Master in Management (MiM).
Rankings
In the 2026 Financial Times Masters in Finance pre-experience ranking, ESCP's Master in Finance was ranked first worldwide for the fourth consecutive year.
Campus
ESCP students can study on campuses in France (Paris), the UK (London), Spain (Madrid), Germany (Berlin), Italy (Turin), and Poland (Warsaw). They can spend either 6 months or 1 year on each campus according to their study choices. Each campus has its own specifics and develops programs with local academic institutions. For instance, in Spain, ESCP provides a Master in Business Project Management co-delivered with the Technical University of Madrid and in Italy, a double-degree program is available for engineers together with the Polytechnic University of Turin.
ESCP's Paris campus has historically operated across the République and Montparnasse sites. The République campus, where ESCP has been established since 1898, is undergoing a major renovation and the school temporarily relocated the activities based there to Porte de Champerret in the 17th arrondissement. The renovation was formally launched on 14 November 2025 and the République site is scheduled to reopen in 2029. The Montparnasse site remains in use. The school also operates a branch campus in the Dubai International Financial Centre in the United Arab Emirates.
2026–2030 strategy and academic expansion
ESCP's Bold & United strategic plan covers the 2026–2030 period and sets out the school's stated objective of developing into what it calls a "European University of Management" by 2030. The planned structure consists of three schools: ESCP Business School as the historic management school, the ESCP School of Technology, scheduled to open in 2027, and the ESCP School of Governance, scheduled for 2029. According to the plan, the technology school is intended to combine management with digital transformation, artificial intelligence, data analysis and emerging technologies, while the governance school is planned around geopolitics, public affairs, international law and strategy.
In June 2026, ESCP announced the first programmes associated with the School of Technology. These include a three-year Bachelor in Management, Science & Technology, with its first intake planned for September 2027, as well as three Master of Science programmes. The bachelor is planned as a multi-campus programme, with the first cohort studying successively in Paris, Turin and London.
The strategy also includes investment in ESCP's campus network. ESCP has stated that €320 million is planned for campus transformation and that the ESCP Foundation has launched a €100 million fundraising campaign. The redevelopment of the historic République campus in Paris is part of this programme and is scheduled for completion in 2029.
Recent academic developments
In July 2026, ESCP and Sciences Po announced a four-year dual bachelor's degree in Politics, Economics and Management. The programme is taught in English, with the first two years at Sciences Po's Reims campus, the third year at ESCP's London campus and the fourth year at another ESCP European campus. Students completing the programme are awarded bachelor's degrees by both institutions. The inaugural cohort, expected to number about 40 students, is planned for the 2027–2028 academic year.
ESCP also reports that, as of 2026, it has approximately 150 academic alliances across 50 countries and an alumni network of more than 90,000 people in 193 countries.
The School of Technology, School of Governance and European University of Management described above are planned developments; the dates reflect ESCP's published 2026–2030 strategy rather than completed institutional changes.
Partnerships
ESCP has over 100 partner grandes écoles and universities worldwide, several offering dual degrees.