ESPCI web site
Message from Vincent Croquette, Director of ESPCI Paris - PSL
Dear parents,
While the Press is spreading a lot of disturbing news, it seems appropriate for me to keep you informed of the situation at the school. It should be kept in mind that, although ESPCI Paris - PSL is a Grande École, its structure is of medium size and completely different from that of the undergraduate levels of our Universities. While government directives require higher education institutions to halve their occupancy rate, this measure is already in place here. All our students can attend classes in the classroom or in a room adjacent to the classroom with only one seat occupied out of two. Classes are also broadcasted online for those who cannot attend in person.
Since the beginning of the health crisis and in order to best anticipate the needs of the ESPCI community, a Covid-19 monitoring cell has been created at the level of the general management grouping together the different services of the school and the president of the students’ association (BDE). This team closely follows the evolution of the crisis internally. It is in close relation with our students, our researchers and professors, the members of our staff, in order to accompany them in this particular context and to propose them, if necessary, a solution adapted to their situation.
The school’s technical and IT services have worked with motivation and efficiency to make sure that the technical, human and health resources implemented on our sites guarantee the continuity in teaching that is essential to the success of our engineering students’ training.
At the beginning of the school year, ESPCI chose, as I said, to give priority to adapted face-to-face teaching. This priority was also made with sacrifices: the integration weekend could not take place, the bar is temporarily closed, PhD defense parties are no longer allowed and the mask is of course mandatory.
The face-to-face teaching is essential to ESPCI because of its specificity of practical work and constant exchanges between students and professors.
We have restricted our reception capacities and introduced a gauge for all the reception areas (teaching areas, dining areas, library) to a maximum of 50% of their nominal capacity as of Tuesday, October 6.
Our teaching teams are therefore adapting: courses in "hybrid" mode (face-to-face and distance learning), practical sessions with 4 m2 per student or divided into 2 groups if the premises do not allow for this gauge and adjusted timetables.
More than ever, we call for the respect of sanitary instructions and for the vigilance of everyone, in order to limit the epidemic to the smallest possible scale on our sites. Since the beginning of the school year, we have identified 24 confirmed cases of Covid-19 within our sites, 8 of which are still active (11 PhD students, 5 students, 3 administrative staff, 2 trainees, 2 researchers, 1 post-doc). As you can see, the majority of these cases are not engineering students and no propagation has occurred within the school, all the cases contracted Covid-19 outside.
I would like to thank once again, the whole ESPCI community for the constancy of its engagement in this difficult context. It continues to face, in the respect of the social distancing and the procedures which become more and more complicated.
Be well.
Vincent Croquette,
Director of ESPCi Paris - PSL