Address: 36 avenue Guy de Collongue, 69130 Écully, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
General Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Acoustics
Écully, a commune beside Lyon in France, is the home of École Centrale de Lyon, known in everyday use as Centrale Lyon. It is a public higher-education institution and a member of the Groupe des Écoles Centrales, the French network of generalist engineering schools. The school’s directory profile places its main subject areas in general engineering, mechanical engineering and acoustics.
Centrale Lyon trains engineers through a multidisciplinary engineering course in the French grande école tradition, and it also awards master’s degrees and doctorates. Its own website lists general engineering, specialty engineering, master’s and PhD programmes. Research is organised in six joint research units, a number that both the institution’s website and encyclopaedic sources give.
Admission routes differ between the engineering course, the master’s programmes and the doctorate, so prospective students should read the admissions pages carefully. International applicants can find exchange and double-degree information on the school’s international pages. Figures on enrolment and staff change from year to year and are published by the school itself.
Domains taught:
Aerospace, AI and Machine Learning, Automation, Bioengineering, Bioinformatics, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Computer Vision, Data Analytics, Ecology and Sustainability, Electrical and Electronics, Engineering, Fluid Dynamics, Industrial Design, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Materials, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Microbiology and Genetics, Nanotechnologies, Optics, Physics, Process Control, Project Management, Robotics, Signal Processing, Software Engineering, Sound Engineering, Statistics, Structural Engineering, Telecommunications, Thermodynamics, Transportations
Diplomas*:
Doctor, Master
Status:
Public
Partnerships:
Part of Groupe des Écoles Centrales. Member of T.I.M.E. network. Numerous international dual degrees and industry partnerships (e.g., Safran, Renault, EDF).
Research:
Acoustics and vibration, Tribology and interface mechanics, Nanotechnology and materials science, Bioengineering and health, Energy and environment.
Famous Alumnis:
Marc Riboud, Jean-Martin Folz
International recognition**:
Number of staff***:
500
Current students***:
2000
Foreign students***:
20%
Cumulative former students***:
20000
Pros
Prestigious general engineering school, strong research labs, excellent career prospects, international focus.
Cons
Highly selective, demanding curriculum, campus located outside Lyon city center.
Best For
Leading general engineering school with strong research in acoustics, materials, and bioengineering.
École Centrale de Nantes is listed for mechanical engineering and marine engineering, a close match for the mechanical side of Centrale Lyon.
Close in profile too is École Centrale de Lille, which pairs general engineering with data science and industrial fields.
CentraleSupélec offers a generalist engineering programme with energy and computer science among its fields, close to Centrale Lyon's multidisciplinary approach.
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon works on mechanical engineering, computer science and materials in the same urban area as Centrale Lyon.
Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden is a public engineering and technology university whose profile overlaps with the engineering sciences taught at Écully.
Politecnico di Torino, in Italy, is listed for automotive and aerospace engineering, a mechanical-engineering strand shared with Centrale Lyon.
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, in Switzerland, is a public university covering engineering and natural sciences, a broad technical scope similar to that of a generalist French engineering school.
In Germany, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie offers mechanical engineering and computer science, two disciplines that also run through the Écully curriculum.
Canada's Polytechnique Montréal teaches engineering across all disciplines, comparable to the multidisciplinary offer of Centrale Lyon.
*our own picks (our criteria: a mix between domains, diploma delivered, reputation and size), but obviously too many criteria for an apple-to-apple ranking.
FAQ
Where is École Centrale de Lyon located?
It sits in Écully, a commune adjoining the city of Lyon in south-eastern France. Both the institution's website and encyclopaedic sources place it there.
Is Centrale Lyon a public or private institution?
It is a public higher-education establishment. Details on tuition are published on the school's official admissions pages.
Which degrees can be earned at Centrale Lyon?
The school offers general and specialty engineering diplomas, master's degrees and PhDs, according to its official website.
What does the Groupe des Écoles Centrales mean for the school?
Centrale Lyon belongs to this group of French generalist engineering schools. The group itself publishes details on what the network offers.
How is research organised at Centrale Lyon?
Research is carried out in six joint research units, as the school's website and encyclopaedic sources both indicate.
Which subjects is the school best placed to teach?
The directory lists general engineering, mechanical engineering and acoustics.
How can I find the current admission conditions for Centrale Lyon?
Entry conditions differ between the engineering course, the master's programmes and the doctorate. The official admissions pages of the school give up-to-date requirements, calendars and tuition information, so these should be consulted directly.
*: without any judgment of the quality, readers are strongly encouraged to check the official status of the exact diploma envisioned as many universities have a mix of recognized diplomas, not recognized, “co-delivered,” “equivalent to”, “some pathways” (…), can change over time, and can be named differently from one country to another.
**: international reputation: is based on some criteria that do not mean much in some domains or specialties (number of researchers, of scientific publications, on budget ….). Our approximate 1-4 scale:
known locally
known locally and internationally
is listed in some of the world university’s classifications
is listed among the 20 firsts in some of world university’s classifications
***: estimated numbers, based on online sources and/or feedbacks. The numbers can vary greatly depending on school organisation (ex.: school is part of a group, it employs internal staff or external consultants or has public staff without employing them …). Refer to all the links provided to have accurate and updated numbers.
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