Laurent Champaney: Leadership training in higher education and research

Normalien (Mechanics, 1988), agrégé, president of the Conférence des grandes écoles, and general director of the École supérieure des Arts et Métiers (ENSAM), Laurent Champaney today embodies the leadership he calls for to guide the evolution of our higher education and research system.
By his own admission, Laurent Champaney was not a very good student. But in technical high school, he discovered a true passion for technology that has never left him. After preparatory classes in Angers, where most of his classmates intended to go to the Arts et Métiers school in the same city, he was admitted to the competitive entrance exam of ENS Paris-Saclay, joining the mechanical engineering department in 1988. “There,” he recalls, “I fully enjoyed Parisian life while getting deeply involved in student life on the Cachan campus.” He earned the agrégation in Industrial Sciences for Engineering in 1991, and then, on the advice of his teachers, undertook an internship in a company in Ireland. Back in France, he completed a Master’s degree (UPMC) followed by a PhD at the LMT (now LMPS) at ENS Paris-Saclay, which he defended in 1996. In parallel, the young normalien gained various teaching experiences: at the military school during his national service year, and in other engineering schools, before obtaining a teaching position as PRAG at the University of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, one of the four newly created universities in the Île-de-France region.

Teaching, a deep conviction
At the university, Laurent Champaney fully committed to supporting students from diverse backgrounds and to educational engineering, notably by creating a postgraduate diploma (DESS). “Despite the lack of resources, those were my best teaching years,” he says. “I realized my vocation lay more in educational leadership than in research.” After obtaining his Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) and becoming a Maître de Conférences, the normalien was called in 2005 by ENS Paris-Saclay to head the mechanical engineering department. At first surprised, he rolled up his sleeves to meet the challenge. “Teaching at ENS Paris-Saclay was intellectually stimulating: the high level of the students required continuous pedagogical innovation. Creating new tools with them and seeing how they made the concepts their own was a great source of satisfaction.”

The American experience
At the start of a second term, encouraged by the ENS Paris-Saclay administration, Laurent Champaney decided to spend a year teaching at UCLA. This experience allowed him to discover another academic culture. “It was also decisive in my decision to invest more in strategic roles in higher education.” Back in France, the normalien was appointed deputy director general for education at ENSAM in 2012, a position he held for five years before being appointed director general in 2017—a mandate renewed for five years in 2022.

Reconnecting with the founding values of Arts et Métiers
Among the motivations that led him to take on responsibilities at Arts et Métiers, Laurent Champaney notes that few of its graduates pursue careers in industry, even though the sector needs them. “Many come to the school for the brand it represents in the job market. Yet currently, in France, there is talk of reindustrialization and relocation, and for that, we absolutely need profiles like those trained at Arts et Métiers.” Convinced from the start, he continues to strongly advocate for the school’s industrial roots. “Understanding materials, manufacturing processes—this is fundamental. Even in the digital age, it is crucial to train engineers with a solid grasp of the physical world.” He observes that the training methods are not very different from those in engineering sciences at ENS Paris-Saclay. “Forges, foundries, etc.—we use many full-scale machines to train our engineers on our campuses!” he reminds us. “As a result, our students learn to communicate with production teams. In industry, the human collective includes managers and workers. Our students learn not only to solve operational problems that arise in daily machine operation but also to adapt to this social diversity. By fully integrating this human dimension, our engineers are thus prepared for management,” he states, criticizing training frameworks that neglect this managerial aspect due to the lack of explicit management courses in curricula.

ENS Paris-Saclay: training leaders for higher education and research
In the current context of the gradual disappearance of manual and technological teaching in schools and the lack of resources in higher education, maintaining high-performing technological platforms on campuses is a daily challenge, according to Laurent Champaney. That’s why, beyond initial training, he believes it is essential to develop applied partnership research, industry relations, and sponsorship. “It’s a constant challenge that fascinates me.” He adds: “This is why we need leaders to take on academic responsibilities: bridging research with the socio-economic world, overseeing training, leading institutions,” affirms the DG. From this perspective, he is convinced that ENS Paris-Saclay has a key role to play. Its excellence and uniqueness lie in its ability to train brilliant individuals capable of assuming academic responsibilities, says Laurent Champaney, citing the example of Sylvie Retailleau, normalienne, former minister and former university president.

Women at the forefront
President of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles since 2021, after having been its vice-president, the DG of ENSAM works to enhance the appeal of the grandes écoles and broadly promotes the benefits of the dual system in French higher education. “France has major public sectors—education, health, justice—which universities traditionally train for. In parallel, the grandes écoles model is more business-oriented. Access is selective and therefore more limited. This balance is essential to our society.” He also highlights the gender diversity issue in scientific fields. “Yet at Arts et Métiers, girls perform better than boys and are better paid upon graduation!” claims the director general. Despite multiple initiatives, a structural issue persists in France. “We have an elite mathematics school, but upstream, our evaluation methods disadvantage girls from a very young age.” For him, a true revolution is needed. “If we want a fairer, more humane, and protective society, we need more women in decision-making roles. It’s not only a matter of balance and social justice—it’s a matter of future. Empowering women is a priority.”

To the young normalien generation, Laurent Champaney strongly advises not to overlook the importance of collective spirit during their studies. “In a society where digital tools encourage isolation, it is essential to remain attentive to those around us. AI provides structured knowledge, so it’s all the more important to invest humanly. This engagement—through associations, for instance—also prepares you for your future career,” he concludes. “A school like ENS Paris-Saclay is built for this, so make the most of this opportunity.