The Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan (the ENS Cachan), a prestigious public institution of higher education and research founded in 1912, is one of the major French Grandes Écoles, which are considered the pinnacle of French higher education.  

With its multidisciplinary departments and their associated research laboratories, the ENS Cachan provides its students with a high-level cultural and scientific training. 

The background they acquire in this favourable intellectual and cultural environment allows them to embrace promising and exciting careers in keeping with their personal interests and ambitions.

Students who enter the ENS have a double status: they are both students, registered in State Universities, and normaliens, i.e., members of the ENS.

The status of normalien means:

• an administrative status of trainee civil servant,
• a 10-year contract with the State, which includes the four years of study at ENS,
  
• a yearly salary paid by the State during the four years of study.

The other three Ecoles Normales Supérieures (ENS) in France are: ENS de Paris, founded in 1794, ENS de Lyon Sciences and ENS de Lyon - LSH (Social Sciences and Humanities).

In terms of student numbers, the ENS Cachan is the largest of the four.