Master in Management (Programme Grande École)

ICN Business School’s Master in Management (Programme Grande École) is the master cycle of a triple-accredited French grande école — AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA — based in Nancy, with further campuses in Paris (La Défense) and Berlin.¹ ³ ⁴ It ranked 67th worldwide (and 16th in France) in the Financial Times Masters in Management 2025, offers an English-taught route, admits internationally without the GMAT, and is uniquely defined by the ARTEM alliance — a shared Nancy campus with an art-and-design school and an engineering school — at roughly €14,500–€14,800 a year.¹ ² ⁴

Overview

ICN Business School traces back to 1905, when the Chamber of Commerce of Meurthe-et-Moselle founded it in Nancy as the Institut Commercial de Nancy (ICN); it took the name ICN Business School in 2003, as a state-recognised private institution long affiliated with the University of Lorraine.⁴ What lifts it above a purely regional school is the accreditation stack: ICN carries the “triple crown” of AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA — a combination only a small minority of business schools worldwide hold — plus the BGA responsible-management accreditation, and it is a member of France’s Conférence des Grandes Écoles.² ⁴ With roughly 3,000 students across Nancy, Paris and Berlin, over 1,000 of them international from 80-plus nationalities, and about 140 partner universities in 40 countries, it is a mid-sized grande école with a genuinely international footprint.³ ⁴ That is the quality signal beneath the brand.

The ranked credential is real, too. ICN’s Master in Management placed 67th in the world and 16th in France in the Financial Times Masters in Management 2025, and sits in the 101–110 band of the QS Business Masters (Management) 2025.² For where that stands among the wider field, weigh it on the full rankings. But the line that most distinguishes ICN from the pack of French grandes écoles is its art-and-management identity — covered below.

Curriculum & Structure

The Master in Management is the master-level cycle of ICN’s Programme Grande École, awarding the state-recognised French Grade de Master (Bac+5, RNCP Level 7, title n°39271).¹ The full programme runs three years with a September intake; most international and bachelor’s-holding applicants join later, entering the master cycle (the final two years) through direct/parallel admission.¹ Crucially for international students, an English-taught route is available, so the degree works as a fully English pathway; a work-study (apprenticeship) pathway is offered from the second year, and can be employer-funded.¹ Confirm the English-track availability and structure for your intended intake on ICN’s own page.¹

What sets the academic experience apart is ARTEM. Founded in 1999 and consolidated onto a single shared Nancy campus in 2017, the ARTEM alliance brings ICN together with the École nationale supérieure d’art et de design de Nancy (ENSAD Nancy) and the Mines Nancy engineering school under the motto *“where creativity meets management.”*⁴ In practice that means cross-disciplinary project work spanning management, art/design and engineering — a genuinely differentiated formation that no other profiled French grande école offers. Alongside it, professional experience is built in through compulsory internships across the programme, and ICN’s international dimension is real: an English-taught track, ~140 partners and double-degree options abroad.¹ ³ On how a grande école master compares with the “MiM” label more broadly, see MiM vs a business degree and our explainer on what a Grande École is.

Application & Deadlines

Admission for international applicants is without a standardised entrance test. French post-preparatory-class candidates enter via the BCE competitive exam and Bac+2/+3 holders via the AST parallel-admissions route, but international applicants are assessed through an application file plus motivation and language interviews — there is no GMAT or GRE requirement on that route.¹ The main gates beyond the file and interviews are academic level and English-language proficiency — for the English-taught master route, roughly IELTS 6.0 / TOEFL 80 / TOEIC 750 / Duolingo 105.³ Because there is no admissions test on the international route, ICN publishes no admitted-student score average, so we quote no range. For test-optional routes generally, see our guide to a MiM in Europe without the GMAT.

On timing, ICN admits on an application-file basis with region-staggered cut-offs — non-EU applicants apply earlier than EU applicants, to leave room for visa processing — rather than a single universal round.¹ So there is no one universal deadline: the 2026-intake international deadlines fell in early summer 2026 and have now closed, and seats and any scholarship funding fill as each cycle progresses, so applying earlier is the safer move. Confirm the current cycle’s dates on ICN’s own admissions page, and map them against the schools that do run fixed rounds on our deadline tracker.

Tuition & Funding

For 2026, ICN prices the Master in Management by year of the Programme Grande École: about €14,800 for the first year and €14,500 for each of the second and third years, with no separate EU / non-EU rate quoted.¹ So the two-year master cycle the FT ranks costs in the region of €29,000, and the full three-year Grande École track around €43,800; a work-study apprenticeship pathway from the second year can be employer-funded, which materially lowers the net cost for students who secure a contract.¹ That places ICN in the mid-range of the French grande école market — well below the marquee Parisian schools (HEC, ESSEC, ESCP) and broadly in line with the other triple-accredited regional grandes écoles.

The cost advantage compounds outside Paris: Nancy’s living costs sit far below the capital’s, so a budget-conscious applicant who still wants triple-crown, FT-ranked credentials can keep the all-in figure down. Fees vary by entry point and year and change each cycle, so check the figure for your exact entry on ICN’s own page before you budget. For the wider cost picture, see the cheapest MiM in Europe shortlist and how much a MiM in Europe costs.

Career Outcomes

ICN does not publish a Financial Times-audited cross-school salary for its Master in Management, and we do not quote one we cannot verify — so ICN does not appear on our highest-salary shortlist, which uses the FT’s weighted figure. What ICN does report on its own programme page is a strong headline placement rate: around 96% of graduates employed within six months.¹ Read that as the school’s own figure rather than an FT-audited, cross-school-comparable one — but it points to solid outcomes into the usual grande école destinations of consulting, finance, marketing, and increasingly design- and innovation-adjacent management roles that play to the ARTEM formation.¹ ⁴

Where ICN’s outcomes are most differentiated is the art-management crossover: a cohort trained alongside design and engineering students is unusually well placed for creative-industry management, brand and innovation roles. On staying in France to work, see working in France after a European MiM and our guide to post-study work visas for MiM graduates in Europe. Weigh the broader return in is a MiM worth it in 2026?.

Reputation

A triple-crown accreditation (AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, plus BGA), a 67th-in-the-world / 16th-in-France FT Masters in Management 2025 standing, and a genuinely distinctive art-and-management ARTEM identity make ICN a credible, internationally-minded route into a European management master.¹ ² ⁴ It is the strongest fit for an applicant who wants internationally accredited, FT-ranked credentials, an English-taught, test-free application, and either a genuinely international cohort or the cross-disciplinary creativity of the ARTEM campus — at a mid-market French price outside the Parisian premium, provided you’re comfortable that it is a respected regional grande école rather than a global marquee brand.

For context, weigh ICN against the other French options we profile — Burgundy School of Business, Excelia Business School and Rennes School of Business among them — across the full rankings, the France MiM hub and the best MiM in Europe shortlist, and read studying a master’s in France and how to build a MiM profile as you plan your application.

¹ ICN Business School — Master in Management (Programme Grande École) (official programme name “Programme Grande École / Master in Management”, Grade de Master / Bac+5 / RNCP Level 7 title n°39271; three-year programme with a September intake; French and English tracks; 2026 tuition Year 1 €14,800 / Years 2–3 €14,500, no EU/non-EU split stated; admission via BCE (post-prépa), AST (parallel Bac+2/+3) and international file + motivation and language interviews — no GMAT/GRE; compulsory internships throughout, work-study/apprenticeship pathway from Year 2; ~96% employed within six months; retrieved 5 July 2026).

² ICN Business School — Rankings & Accreditations (Financial Times Masters in Management 2025: 67th worldwide, 16th in France; QS Business Masters — Management 2025: 101–110 band; accreditations AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA and BGA; retrieved 5 July 2026).

³ ICN Business School — International (over 1,000 international students from 80-plus nationalities, ~43% international; ~140 partner universities across 40 countries; campuses in Nancy, Paris La Défense and Berlin; English-taught master thresholds roughly IELTS 6.0 / TOEFL 80 / TOEIC 750 / Duolingo 105; retrieved 5 July 2026).

⁴ ICN Business School — Wikipedia (corroborating context: founded 1905 by the Chamber of Commerce of Meurthe-et-Moselle as the Institut Commercial de Nancy, renamed ICN Business School in 2003; ARTEM alliance established 1999 with ENSAD Nancy and Mines Nancy, shared campus from 2017; triple accreditation AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA; member of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles; approx. 3,000 students; campuses in Nancy, Paris and Germany; retrieved 5 July 2026).