EPF Ecole d'ingénieurs

EPF, ex- Ecole Polytechnique Féminine, was founded in 1925, as one of France's first Grandes Ecoles to train women to be engineers. Since then, it has trained more than 8,000 graduates in every sector of industry and service. Each class has 200 students in the general curriculum and 20-30 students in double degree programmes.

The former technical labs

EPF's beginnings

EPF was founded in 1925 by the female engineer Marie-Louise Paris, under the name IEF (Institut Électromécanique Féminin - Women's Electromechanical Institute), to train young women to be electromechanical engineers. It also included a shorter programme that trained draftswomen and assistant engineers. In 1933, IEF became EPF and added an extra year of studies (moving from 2 to 3 years of study) and an aeronautics department.
 

A renowned school

In 1938, EPF received accreditation by CTI (Commission des titres d’ingénieur) to grant engineering degrees, and in 1943 it received recognition from the French State. In 1976, EPF became a member of the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles. In 1993, it joined the UGEI (Union des Grandes Ecoles Indépendantes) after gaining "public-interest foundation" status in 1991.
 

The Sceaux head campus

After its early days at the CNAM (Conservatoire national des arts et métiers), EPF had to move to Sceaux in 1956, with its address at 3 bis rue Lakanal, in Marie-Louise Paris' personal home. Since then, EPF has expanded and acquired two other sites. In 2010, EPF opened a new site in Troyes, on the UTT campus.
 

Promoting gender balance

EPF began accepting male students, in 1994, but its history and its expertise makes it one of the engineering schools with the highest percentage of female students (40% compared with 17% in other engineering schools).