The École nationale supérieure des arts et industries textiles (ENSAIT) is a French Engineering grand établissement (

grande école A ''grande école'' () is a specialised university that is separate from, but parallel and often connected to, the main framework of the French public university system. The grandes écoles offer teaching, research and professional training in s ...

) and a member of UP-TEX research cluster ( Union Pôle Textile). ENSAIT is a higher education and research institute, gathering all the disciplines related to textiles. ENSAIT chairs include four departments related to education and research.

Admission

* A majority of full-time students requesting admission have to pass a competitive exam (Concours e3a) in order to attend ENSAIT at the end of their undergraduate studies. * International students with a bachelor's degree can also request for admission. About fifty percent of students at ENSAIT have an international profile. * Professional part-time education is also developed.

Textile curricula and research activities

ENSAIT different curricula lead to the following degrees : * Ingénieur ENSAIT Master's degree * Masters Research and Specialized Masters, in cooperation with the University of Lille, École centrale de Lille and École nationale supérieure de chimie de Lille. * Doctoral degree The major fields of study and research at ENSAIT are: *

Technical textiles A technical textile is a textile product manufactured for non-aesthetic purposes, where function is the primary criterion. Technical textiles include textiles for automotive applications, medical textiles (e.g., implants), geotextiles (reinforc ...

Mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...

Industrial and manufacturing engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information ...

Smart material Smart materials, also called intelligent or responsive materials, are designed materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, moisture, electric or magnetic ...

* Textiles Chemistry, Biotechnology in Textiles * Clothing Technologies,

Design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

During first year at ENSAIT, students study all the basics of textile technology. Each year, approximately 80 students receive an ENSAIT Master's degree referred-to as ''diplôme d'ingénieur ENSAIT'', and around 10 students receive a doctoral degree.

History

The school was founded in Roubaix ( Nord-Pas de Calais,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

) with municipal funding. It was originally meant to provide a special studying program for the requirements of the textile industry at Roubaix and France. After 1889, the institution became known as the ''École d'Arts et Métiers Textiles''. Because the school was near from the war front, it was closed in some wartime periods (

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

), many students and academic staff died in these wars. Nowadays, the ENSAIT has a very large parc of machinery. In 1991, the GEMTEX was inaugurated as the first French center with research competence in all textile engineering fields. Entrepreneurship is also promoted with GENI-INNOTEX.

Student life

Since the ENSAIT foundation, the students perpetuate their own '' traditions'' and

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

, and are members of a

student society A student society, student association, university society, student club, university club, or student organization is a society or an organization, operated by students at a university or a college institution, whose membership typically consists o ...

. They call themselves "''AIT''" . The "BDE" folklore includes traditional clothing, language, songs and legends, related symbolism, and

ceremonial A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular ...

s. ''BDE'' activities are independent of the administration of the school and are exclusively run by the students, although the two parts often cooperate for organising cultural or sporting events.

International

The ENSAIT has a partnership with more than 300 institutions around the world. {{Authority control Technical universities and colleges in France Textile industry of France Textile schools Universities and colleges in Lille Roubaix Educational institutions established in 1889 1889 establishments in France