In the restaurants and cafeterias on the forecourt of IE University, students meet employees of the international auditing firms PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and KPMG, Havas Media, Volkswagen, Coca-Cola and the Spanish oil company Cepsa. It must be said that the vertical campus of this private university occupies the first 24 floors of a tower with 180 meters of bay windows and is located in the middle of the four skyscrapers of Madrid’s business district. “We have the PwC logo on the front: we understand straight away what we’re trained for,” jokes Clémence Bouchard, a young 22-year-old Parisian, playful and chatty.
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This fourth-year student with a bachelor’s degree – an undergraduate degree equivalent to a license but taken in four years in Spain and in English – says it without malice. The former high school student from Saint-Jean-de-Passy in Paris’ 16th arrondissement, whose father is a retired wine merchant and whose mother works in communications, is in her world. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration (BBA), the most popular education for prospective business school applicants, and a bachelor’s degree in international relations (BIR). She systematically adds each of her teachers to her LinkedIn network. And it combines theoretical training and professional experience through practical courses, compulsory internships or optional “labs” – a kind of space for collaboration in company projects led by IE professors.
“I come from a very tough, very fragile and very Catholic private high school and could not have imagined continuing there in the preparatory class. Here I go to classes with 45 people of fifteen different nationalities, our teachers are recognized professionals, I have built a great network and I have not given up on my social life,” adds the young woman, who shares a roommate in the trendy and festive neighborhood of Malasaña in the historical center of the capital.
In the university auditorium, thanks to a facial recognition system, students pass through the turnstiles before they can enter the lecture halls. Conference on “The Future of NFT”, workshop “Stress Management” and other activities, parade on the screens in front of the elevators. “The tower is very ‘corporate’ but super equipped: we have a gym, a swimming pool and free yoga and pilates classes,” explains Séraphine (who prefers to remain anonymous), 20-year-old, second year BIR, the wanted to have “an experience abroad” after spending part of his childhood in Turkey. With an average of 15.8 in her high school diploma from the Sainte-Geneviève private institute in Paris (6th arrondissement), the student, whose father works in finance, was eligible for a scholarship covering 50% of her tuition fees.
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