Society & Economy

Dreams of higher learning

Who are these young graduates from top French seats of higher learning like Sciences Po, and who, year in year out for over 50 years, have clambered to get into ENA, the smallest of the French ´Grandes Ecoles´ universities, at once the most prestigious and the most highly sought-after? How do they go about preparing to get into the school? What do they learn once they get there: to flex their intellectual muscles or to scramble on to the podium of success? To go beyond their own capacities, or to outstrip those of others? Are the ´ENArques´ as the graduates of this school are known, the Gods of the 3rd Millennium, or are they rather losing ground? We get on their trail and meet them. Are they in a closed circuit? Are they all brainwashed? Before, during and after the ENA, are their dreams still the same?