When Richard Descoings took over as director of the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris in 1996, students at the school, founded in 1871 and universally known as “Sciences Po,” looked like those at any other elite French institution.  “We were in the same situation as the Grandes Écoles,” Mr. Descoings said in a recent interview, referring to places like the École Normale Supérieure or the École Polytechnique, highly selective pinnacles of the French higher education system. The director, 53, had once been a student there himself, following a well-worn, if demanding, path from private school to the “prépas” — two years of classes designed solely to prepare a student for the “concours,” the rigorous exam that governs entry to the most selective schools — then to Sciences Po and afterward the famed École Nationale d’Administration, or ENA, whose graduates have long formed the top tier of French public life. A high-flier, Mr. Descoings was appointed to the Conseil d’État, whose members advise government ministers and also serve as the country’s supreme court.  “The students who came to us were almost exclusively white, from affluent families located in big cities,” he said. “These were students whose parents and grandparents were university graduates. And in a country like France — a country with deep social differences between regions, between the city and the countryside, and between the social classes — this was a big problem.”  Ten years ago Mr. Descoings decided to do something about it.  “Richard saw the handwriting on the wall,” said Peter Gumbel, a former journalist who now heads the Center for the Americas at Sciences Po. “He realized very early on that we would have to find a way to wean ourselves from government funding in order to grow. And that we would have to grow to become more diverse. At the same time he blew up the admissions system.”  In place of the single route to entry, Sciences Po instituted a threefold admissions procedure: French candidates could take an entry exam in their final year of secondary school; international candidates, who at the time made up only a small proportion of the applicants, could submit a dossier including both school grades and scores on either national exams, such as the British A-levels, or standardized tests including the SAT in the United States. French students who achieved unusually high grades on their baccalauréat would also be admitted. Most controversially, Sciences Po approached 85 secondary schools in disadvantaged areas of France and agreed to accept their most able graduates regardless of exam results.  “We said, ‘Just send us your best students,’ and we’ll admit them and give them whatever financial aid they need in order to attend,” Mr. Gumbel said.  At the time the effort was announced, commentators in newspapers across the country assailed the program. While there were some who praised the changes, others called them an attack on a grand tradition that has produced world-class scholars. One writer in Le Figaro called the program an act of “political correctness” that embraced a failed American approach. Others called it a publicity stunt.  On Tuesday Mr. Descoings will release the school’s official reply to its critics: a specially commissioned study of the 10-year impact of the diversity initiative written by Vincent Tiberj, a sociologist who coordinates research methodology at Sciences Po.  But an early peek at the verdict on what its sponsors describe as “a French version of affirmative action” reveals a series of successes. From a student body where, in 2001, only 6 percent of students received any form of financial assistance, the most recent incoming class at Sciences Po now has 27 percent of students on scholarships — roughly double the percentage found at any of the top Grandes Écoles.  Mr. Descoings has also presided over a major expansion program, taking the school from its home campus on the Rue Saint-Guillaume to six new campuses outside Paris: Poitiers, for Spanish and Latin American studies; Dijon, which specializes in Eastern Europe; Le Havre for East Asian studies; Menton for Middle Eastern Studies; Nancy for Franco-German studies, and Reims for the study of North America and Britain. At the Reims campus the language of instruction is English. “Don’t tell the Minister of Culture,” he joked.
One of Franceâs most traditional and prestigious universities, which long prepared privileged children for privileged careers, has expanded its student body to include the underprivileged.