SCAN, [‘Sciences et Anglais’], is the English section at INSA, Lyon. It was created in 1979, and has now been extended to cover the first two years of the common core engineering programme. The first year comprises one group of 24 students (ideally half being non-French and half French), joined in the second year by a further two groups of students from the first cycle.

All SCAN students benefit from the same high-level scientific teaching which is the hallmark of the foundation engineering syllabus, with the specific feature of the SCAN section being that lectures, course work and practical classes are in English.

The SCAN section aims to meet the needs of both non-French students whose mother tongue is English or who are fluent in the language, and French students who have acquired an excellent operational level of English during their secondary education. The SCAN section provides a multi-cultural environment in which communication in English is facilitated as the shared language of all its students and teachers.

For non-French students, there is no French language requirement to gain entry to SCAN. However, all students will be given weekly French language classes to enable them to acquire sufficient grounding in French to follow courses in the specialised engineering departments in their third and subsequent years of study at INSA.