On Feb­ru­ary 2nd, the sign­ing of a Dou­ble degree agree­ment — BBA Dig­i­tal Engi­neer­ing and Man­age­ment — between UTC­Com­pieg­ne and EDHEC, Lille took place on the Lille cam­pus of EDHEC Busi­ness School. This is a 4‑year course designed to devel­op a dual set of skills in engi­neer­ing sci­ences and man­age­ment sci­ences and to spe­cialise in one of the three pro­posed majors: Mar­ket­ing, Finance or Engineering. 

EDHEC (Lille) and UTC are now linked by a dou­ble degree option that trains high­pro­file grad­u­ates the heart of the Hauts­de- France Region. The Dig­i­tal Engi­neer­ing and Man­age­ment Dou­ble Degree comes at the right time in a con­text of increas­ing dig­i­tal­iza­tion of the nation­al econ­o­my. This part­ner­ship responds to a strong ambi­tion of both schools: to train hybrid pro­files, at the inter­face of man­age­ment and sci­ence, capa­ble of meet­ing the chal­lenges of a world under­go­ing pro­found changes. The EDHEC-UTC part­ner­ship agree­ment will result in the cre­ation, from Sep­tem­ber 2022, of a 4‑year post-bac dou­ble degree course in which stu­dents will be able to learn and devel­op new skills in the fields of engi­neer­ing sci­ences and man­age­ment sci­ences. They will also be able to spe­cialise in one of the three majors offered: Mar­ket­ing, Finance or Engi­neer­ing. The pro­gramme is main­ly aimed at bac­calau­re­ate stu­dents who have tak­en math­e­mat­ics in the first and last years of sec­ondary school (lycées), as well as eco­nom­ic and social sci­ences or polit­i­cal sci­ence. “This new pro­gramme — ini­ti­at­ed and devel­oped as it was in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with EDHEC, is in line with the UTC’s DNA: lend­ing mean­ing to inno­va­tion’,” recalls Prof. Christophe GUY, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Prin­ci­pal & Vice-Chan­cel­lor, UTC. 

Following the trend 

This dou­ble degree is part of a dynam­ic and close col­lab­o­ra­tion between these two major aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions in the Hauts-de-France Region, placed under the respon­si­bil­i­ty of lec­tur­ers Jean- Christophe Meyfre­di at EDHEC Busi­ness School and Nathalie Darene at UTC-Com­piègne. It com­pletes a coop­er­a­tion scheme between EDHEC and UTC launched in 2020 with the open­ing of the EDHEC Exec­u­tive MBA “Health­care, Inno­va­tion & Tech­nol­o­gy” spe­cial­is­ing in the field of health. “The agree­ments signed with UTC, one of the best eval­u­at­ed engi­neer­ing schools in France, anchor our cours­es of excel­lence in the Region while accel­er­at­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of our knowl­edge hybridiza­tion pol­i­cy, one of the major pil­lars of our 2025 strate­gic plan. “In a soci­ety where the jobs of the future have yet to be imag­ined, the chal­lenge today is to pass on to the younger gen­er­a­tions the mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary knowl­edge that will enable them to invent new, more respon­si­ble and more sus­tain­able mod­els in the future,” empha­sis­es Emmanuel Métais, Direc­tor Gen­er­al of EDHEC Busi­ness School. 

Professional openings today and tomorrow 

Among the major busi­ness chal­lenges that led to the cre­ation of this dou­ble degree is, with­out ques­tion, the accel­er­a­tion of the dig­i­tal sec­tor pro­fes­sions in order to bet­ter respond to the trans­for­ma­tions of soci­ety and the needs of con­sumers and cit­i­zens. “It is cru­cial today to mix skills to bet­ter respond to these numer­ous changes. Dig­i­tal pro­fes­sions are notably fol­low­ing the evo­lu­tion of data man­age­ment. Hence the inter­est in com­bin­ing skills, meet­ing the needs of com­pa­nies and encour­ag­ing new prac­tices,” says Flo­ri­an Pel­grin, pro­fes­sor of eco­nom­ics and sta­tis­tics at EDHEC. Among the new jobs are those of data min­er, cred­it ana­lyst, growth hack­er, cloud com­put­ing engi­neer, dig­i­tal brand man­ag­er, data ethno­g­ra­ph­er, web evan­ge­list, cre­ative tech­nol­o­gist, traf­fic man­ag­er and data ana­lyst. “Among the skills and knowl­edge taught are the abil­i­ty to man­age inno­va­tion, design, com­put­er skills, data­bas­es, oper­a­tional research, Inter­net law and many oth­er aspects, adds Marie- Hélène Abel, direc­tor of UTC’s Com­put­er Sci­ences Department. 

Agile engineering-managers headed for a sustainable professional future 

Nico­las Pfef­fer and Tan­gi Gouez are two 2020 grad­u­ates of the EDHEC BBA (Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion) course. They are now data ana­lysts in two Parisian start-ups. For them, this dou­ble degree will prove a real asset for stu­dents who, thanks to the study of these mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary fields, can also gain in open-mind­ed­ness and adapt­abil­i­ty. “For future gen­er­a­tions of grad­u­ates, this is a chance to be imme­di­ate­ly oper­a­tional in a mar­ket. Our pro­fes­sions are con­stant­ly chang­ing,” they say. “The acqui­si­tion of this mul­ti-faceted exper­tise will cer­tain­ly pre­pare them for careers in the fields of finance, e‑commerce, mar­ket­ing and tech­nol­o­gy, but it will also help them, thanks to high-lev­el pro­grammes and by using the best of both train­ing, to cre­ate a new com­mon language”. 

EDHEC, LILLE: 50 000 GRADUATES WORKING IN 130 COUNTRIES 

EDHEC is one of the best eval­u­at­ed busi­ness schools in France and inter­na­tion­al­ly for all its train­ing pro­grammes: post-bac (EDHEC Inter­na­tion­al BBA), ‘grande école’, mas­ters and exec­u­tive edu­ca­tion. It has been offer­ing high-lev­el man­age­ment train­ing for over 100 years. The EDHEC Inter­na­tion­al BBA is an inten­sive post-bac­calau­re­ate pro­gramme, approved by the French gov­ern­ment, ranked as the lead­ing French 4‑year Bach­e­lor’s degree by the review L’E­tu­di­ant in 2021, which offers stu­dents a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to mod­u­late their cur­ricu­lum accord­ing to their aspi­ra­tions and career plans. 

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