History

L'École des Mines d'Alès (EMA) was founded in 1843.

• From 1841 to 1845 : On 27 March 1841, the project of founding this school was adopted to the Municipal Conseil. In August 1841, the general Conseil emitted a positive opinion. On 22 September 1843, a royal ordonnance created this school. In November 1845, the first promotion was settled. The EMA was initially a school created to promote the development of the Alais basin. Its mission is to train competent masters for mining.
• From 1845 to 1918 : She became "École Technique des Mines d'Alès". Le level of the education there improved. There were more and more candidates and the graduate students became the chefs of exploitation, engineers.^[6]

The First World War (1914–1918) forced the school to close down temporarily.^[6]

• From 1918 to 1960: The school diversified its field of education (masters for management and geometry measurement of mines, conductors of mining constructions...) but because there was not a defined diploma programme, the number of students declined. Thus, in order to attract more candidates, there was a campaign held for the reconstruction of a new school. And from 1965, a "diplôme d'ingénieur" was authorised.
• From 1960 to 1970: The school became "l'École Nationale Technique des Mines d'Alès". Before the end of the mining activities, the school had diversified its education into new industrial domains.
• From 1980, the EMA began to admit girls and promote entrepreneurship.
• In 1990, other two campus sites were established outside Alès, respectively in Nîmes and Pau.
• In 1999, the education and the research focused on these three axes:
  • Culture of the entrepreneurship
  • Incubateur technologique
  • Partnership with the technopoles.^[6]

Organisation

Institut Mines-Telecom (IMT) engineering schools are Grandes Écoles, a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the French public university system. Similar to the Ivy League in the United States, Oxbridge in the UK, and C9 League in China, Grandes Écoles are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process.^[7][8][9] Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France.^[10][11]

Although the IMT engineering schools are more expensive than public universities in France, Grandes Écoles typically have much smaller class sizes and student bodies, and many of their programs are taught in English. International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of the Grandes Écoles. Many of the top ranked schools in Europe are members of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles (CGE), as are the IMT engineering schools.^[12][13] Degrees from the IMT are accredited by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles^[14] and awarded by the Ministry of National Education (France) (French: Le Ministère de L'éducation Nationale).^[15]

Campus

The main part of the school is in the city Alès. The students' residence is around 2 km from the main campus. The residence offers individual rooms, double rooms or studios, furnished and equipped. There are also a laundry, a kitchen equipped, rooms for entertainment, a bar, an auditorium, and a TV room with campus wide internet access.^[16]

List of directors

The following is a list of directors by time period:^[17]