Université Grenoble Alpes: among the top 150 universities worldwide
In Grenoble Alpes, the superior quality of the city’s research and education, paired with its dynamic student lifestyle, has landed it on the list of the Top 3 College Cities in France for the past 10 years.
Université Grenoble Alpes is the metropolitan area’s main university. A major French hub for higher education and research, Université Grenoble Alpes has 59,000 students, of which 7,000 international and 3,700 doctoral candidates. 7,000 professors and researchers are associated with the university.
The high quality of Grenoble’s education has been internationally recognized. Université Grenoble Alpes is regularly ranked among the best European higher education establishments. In fact, the Shanghai Global Ranking places Université Grenoble Alpes in the top 150 worldwide.
UGA is the top university in Europe for innovation, with 3,348 patents filed between 2000 and 2020. (Source: European Patent Office (EPO) – 2024)
In the Shanghai 2024 thematic ranking, it is in the world’s top 40 in 4 disciplines, and the leading university in France in 2 disciplines:
x Remote Sensing : 11, 1stin France
x Earth Sciences : 16, 3rd in France
x Textile science & engineering : 39, 1st in France
x Clinical medicine: 40, 3th in France
UGA is in the top 75 in Mathematics, Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Physics, Ecology and Atmospheric Science
A cornerstone of Grenoble’s educational ecosystem, Université de Grenoble Alpes’ Engineering & Management Institute, Grenoble INP, plays a major role in the local scientific and business communities. Grouped by career paths, its 8 engineering and management departments are close with its industry partners while maintaining a broad international reach. Each year, Grenoble INP delivers 1,200 engineering degrees and names 230 doctorates, making its alumni network the most expansive of any public engineering school in France – and this, for over a century!
Grenoble’s internationally and nationally-recognized business school, Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) has 7 200 students and specializes in Technology and Innovation Management, including 3,000 at Grenoble site.
The Shanghai Ranking ranks GEM among the top 5 French business schools in terms of “management” and “business”.
A region defined by its workforce
340,000 people are actively employed in the metropolitan area, of which 28,000 are engineers and 23% are considered to be “qualified management-level” (compared with the 17% average in France). Manufacturing in the region is particularly robust, thanks to flourishing activity in several sectors, particularly in the production of microelectronic components and circuit boards (STMicroelectronics, Soitec), medical materials and scientific instruments. The business services sector has also seen significant grown in the region.
With 23,000 jobs in research within a radius of 20km, Grenoble Alpes is the #2 research center in France, and the #1 center in terms of its concentration of R&D jobs per capita (7.6% of all jobs are in R&D, according to the national statistics bureau, INSEE). In parallel, Grenoble Alpes is #2 in France for its proportion of engineering in industry (22% of engineers). In terms of engineers as part of total employment, Grenoble Alpes is #2 in France behind Toulouse with 9.2% of engineers (INSEE, 2016)
#1 in France for R&D positions
#2 in France for Engineers
2nd most industrial metropolis in France, within the first industrial French region, Grenoble Alpes offers a wealth of talents and expertise just like the particularly varied industrial base: mechanics, metallurgy, engines and equipment, textile industry, electronics, electric equipment, chemistry, stationery, food-processing industry, plastics processes, and more…
Beyond high technology and the exceptional concentration of engineers and researchers making Grenoble Alpes internationally famous, the area is one of the most dynamic industrial one in France through its variety of industrial jobs and savoir-faire.
Rate of industrial jobs in the whole private jobs in the metropolitan areas
