to become a single institution, retaining the name École normale supérieure de Lyon. Academics ENS de Lyon is a Grande École, a French institution of higher education that is separate from, but parallel and connected to the main framework of the French public university system. Similar to the Ivy League in the United States, Oxbridge in the UK, and C9 League in China, Grandes Écoles are elite academic institutions that admit students through an extremely competitive process. Grandes Écoles typically they have much smaller class sizes and student bodies than public universities in France, and many of their programs are taught in English. While most Grandes Écoles are more expensive than French universities, ENS de Lyon charges the same tuition fees: €243 annually for the master's degree in 2021–2022; €184 for the Bachelor's. International internships, study abroad opportunities, and close ties with government and the corporate world are a hallmark of the Grandes Écoles. Degrees from École normale supérieure are accredited by the Conférence des Grandes Écoles and awarded by the Ministry of National Education (France) (). Alums go on to occupy elite positions within government, administration, and corporate firms in France. Teaching at the ENS de Lyon is organised through twelve main departments, spread over the two campuses: Monod Campus: Natural and Experimental Sciences Departments Biology Chemistry Computer Science Earth Science Mathematics Physics Descartes Campus: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Departments Arts: Musicology, Cinema and Theater studies, Classics and modern French Literature Economics Education and digital humanities Foreign Languages, Literatures and Civilizations: Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian Human Sciences: Philosophy, Cognitive science and Anthropology Social Sciences: Sociology, History, Geography, Political science and International studies Research 23 of ENSL's research groups have contractual ties to major research organizations, notably the CNRS and INSERM. ENSL is a member of several advanced research networks and competitive clusters, including Lyon BioPôle, and hosts an Institute for Advanced Study, the Collegium de Lyon. Sciences Institute of Functional Genomics of Lyon (IGFL) Laboratory of molecular and cell biology (LBMC) Laboratory of plant reproduction and development (RDP) Laboratory of human virology (VIRO) Laboratory of Earth Sciences (LST) Joliot-Curie interdisciplinary laboratory (LJC) Laboratory of Pure and Applied Mathematics (UMPA) Laboratory of chemistry Computer science laboratory (LIP) Laboratory of physics Astronomy research center (CRAL) Center for high field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (CRMN) Humanities C2SO - Communication, culture and society Institute for the History of Classical