Concept
The Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (English: National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts; abbr. CNAM) is an AMBA-accredited French grande école and grand établissement. It is a member of the Conférence des Grandes écoles, which is an equivalent to the Ivy League schools in the United States, Oxbridge in the United Kingdom, the C9 League in China, or the Imperial Universities in Japan. CNAM is one of the founding Schools of the Grande école system, with École polytechnique and Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1794, in the wake of the French Revolution. Headquartered in Paris, it has campuses in every major French cities, in overseas France and in every francophone African country, China, Haiti, Germany, and Switzerland. Founded in 1794 by the French bishop Henri Grégoire, CNAM's core mission is dedicated to provide education and conduct research for the promotion of science and industry. With 70,000 students and a budget of €174 million, it is the largest university in Europe in terms of Budget for distance learning and continued education, and in terms of enrolment, slightly ahead of the University of Hagen. Under the aegis of the French Ministry of National Education, the National Directory of Professional Certifications and the Accreditation authority for French professional engineers, CNAM provides Grande Ecole and non-Grande Ecole certificates, diplomas, Bachelor's degrees, Master's degrees and PhD's in Science, Engineering, Law, Management (AMBA-accredited), Finance, Accountancy, Urban planning and Humanities, all designed to abide by the European Bologna Process, and thus complying with the European Credit Transfer System. It is the only higher education institution in Europe to provide Physics, Chemistry and Life-Science engineer's degrees up to a PhD-level (some of which 100% remotely) via distance learning and via its so-called "hybrid learning" which includes intermittent laboratories classes concentrated during a whole week on-site.