The curriculum comprises two sequences:

• An undergraduate cycle, which is accessible either to students from French “classes préparatoires”, or students from French Universities with a 3-year Bachelor. They will receive science-based training (mathematics and engineering sciences)
• A 2-year master cycle (2^nd and 3^rd years)
  which is accessible either to students from Ecole Polytechnique, from French universities with a 4-year bachelor, to double-degree international students and to Chinese students admitted in the ParisTech programme « 50 Chinese Engineers ».

In the master cycle, students must attend a dual training:

• Scientific and technical courses, the scientific core curriculum being structured by the choice of one of the six dominants
• Managerial courses and social sciences (introduction to Law, introduction to management, etc...).
  

At the end of this cycle, students become École des Ponts Graduate Engineers. They are awarded their Engineering degree which is recognised as a master by the French Government.
French engineering training is dual: it is both academic and profesional. The École des Ponts Engineering Degree is not only an academic degree but also a professional qualification (chartered and graduate).

Access to the course catalog

Various training periods placed throughout their years of study allow students to acquire first hand experience of the professional world by confronting them with the realities of working in a company; between the 2^nd and 3^rd years, students do an internship in a professional environment, the vast majority of them within a company. Students have the choice between two types of internships:

• A long training period of one year, which gives them a real, full-scale professional experience
• A short training period of two months (July and August).

At the end of their third year, students carry out a final project (projet de fin d’études: PFE). This is an individual project on a real subject put forward by the host organisation where the project is carried out, in most cases a company.

Courses aim at achieving the right balance between a broad high-level scientific education and technical mastery.
In addition, students of all dominants are required to follow 4 transversal, common core courses: 2 in natural sciences and 2 in social sciences.

Overall, a typical programme for a student following the master cycle will be made up as follows (we take the overwhelmingly majority case that the student does a long (one-year) internship):

• Internship and Final project: 3 semesters
• Academic curriculum: 3 semesters and 8 weeks of opening sessions divided as follows: language courses (15%), transversal/common core courses and seminars (25%), department (courses and project 45%), elective modules outside the department (15%).

All the curricula proposed in the different dominants give prominence to group learning, seminars, projects or workshops, thus encouraging teamwork.

Students have facilities and equipment of a high standard at their disposal:

• Permanent access to the École des Ponts computer network and to the Internet
• Access to the language labs outside class usage
• Contact with the 10 research centres of the School and to their laboratories
• Access to the libraries:
  
  - Contemporary specialist documents (civil, industrial and urban engineering, town planning, architecture, economics, mathematics, mechanics, engineering science, technology)
  - Historical collection of prints, manuscripts, drawings and photographs, research documentation.