Homepage – « Public Affairs » major

Welcome to the website of the Affaires Publiques (AP)/Public Affairs Major at Sciences Po Lille.

Course objective

The Affaires Publiques (AP)/Public Affairs major is designed for students who want to understand the dynamics of public action in its institutional and material dimensions, as well as in the encounter between public and private players, both at national level and from an international or European perspective.

The Public Affairs major has a multi-disciplinary approach that enables it to reconcile different approaches to the same issue, and is structured around a strong legal foundation.

In Semester 3, students can choose two of three specialties, enabling them to fine-tune their career plans before a final semester of internships:

• Finance and economic policy
• Security and justice issues
• Health and social issues

This is a demanding course of study, enabling students to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to pursue a career in the public or private sector, whether or not this involves passing an administrative competitive examination.

The Public Affairs major opens the door to a wide range of careers and opportunities.

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Main career opportunities

• Careers in the civil service, via competitive exams (ENA, INET, EHSP, Administrateurs des Assemblées, EN3S, IRA Attaché territorial, among others) or with contract status, in France, at local and national level, but also in Europe.

• For those intending to enter the civil service, preparing for the Grands Concours is a natural next step.

• The private sector, with direct links to the public sector (consulting firms, auditors, etc.), in companies providing services to local authorities (construction, services) or with no direct links to them (insurance, industry, energy, culture, communications).

• The legal professions (Magistrates, Lawyers, Police-Justice Competitions) are also accessible on completion of this course, with or without parallel and/or complementary training.

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Heads of the AP major

Editorial by the heads of the major

Public affairs, two words so rich in meaning that it’s hard to reduce them to a simple editorial.

Two words that can also be intimidating, restrictive or self-censoring when the time comes to make a choice.

But two words that also convey rigor, innovation and ethics.

And above all, two words that are highly representative of both a state of mind and a function that will drive the training.

A state of mind, first and foremost, for those who aspire to understand the public sphere, either because they intend to serve it, or because they want to understand it in order to derive a training framework.

Secondly, the function, since the aim is to offer those who take part in it the potential for integration, according to their desires: administrative competitions, of course, but not only. The Master’s in Public Affairs welcomes those who aspire to excellent, practical training.

Beyond this latter ambition, the program offers a multi-disciplinary approach to the challenges of public affairs, while providing a framework for specialization. The internship is the final step in the cycle, after determining the path to integration that the internship is designed to facilitate. The internship can be carried out in a government department or a company, in France or abroad.

Above all, Public Affairs is about opening up possibilities and developing a critical mind. Joining the Public Affairs training cycle means joining an approach that involves taking an interest in and questioning the workings of the State’s system of governance, while broadening the scope to include the European Union.

Our aim is to understand in order to think about public action.

Simon Fromont, Chloë Geynet-Dussauze