Founded in 1900 in Nantes, Audencia - formerly ESC Nantes, whose name derives from the Latin "audientia" meaning "to listen" and "audacia" meaning "audacity" - has established itself as one of Europe's leading management schools with its first EQUIS accreditation in 1998.
Audencia joins the United Nations initiative that brings together companies, labor and civil society around ten universal principles related to human rights, labor standards and the environment.
The school becomes the 1st management school in France to join the Global Compact.
Since then, Audencia has continued to develop and apply its CSR expertise, integrating it into its research, teaching and internal management.
In 2010, the school partnered with SciencesCom (a communications and media school founded in 1984) and L'École Atlantique de Commerce (undergraduate degree training created in 1981), accredited programs ranked among the best in their field.
As a result, Audencia Business School now offers management and communication programs ranging from bachelor's to doctoral degrees.Active both in France and internationally, the school has developed an Executive Education offering that designs training solutions to meet the strategic challenges and operational objectives of companies.
L'École Centrale de Nantes, Audencia and l'école nationale supérieure d'architecture de Nantes (ENSA Nantes) form a strategic alliance that builds on their complementary strengths.
This alliance combines engineering, management, architecture, and design to enrich the teaching, research, corporate relations, and international reach of the three schools.
In 2025, Nantes University has joined Centrale Nantes and Audencia in governing the academic incubator. This new collaboration seals the alliance between three institutions of excellence around a shared vision: to strengthen deep tech entrepreneurship by drawing on the wealth of their academic and scientific ecosystems.
In 2016, Audencia co-constructs, publishes and implements its 2020 development plan to serve the following ambitions:
In 2017, Audencia changed its status from that of an association to that of an EESC (consular higher education institution. Thanks to this change, Audencia, supported by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Nantes-St Nazaire, strengthens its management and decision-making autonomy in order to better meet the challenges of its development.
Audencia celebrates its anniversary with a unique digital experience! From January to December, 20 significant events of the year are illustrated by Nantes-based artist Dr Paper. 120 drawings embodying the richness and diversity of the activities carried out by the Audencia ecosystem. Discover the full feature.
Audencia becomes one of 30 schools worldwide to be included in the Positive Impact Rating. Launch of a new initiative called "Daring Together", in which students, alumni, professors-researchers, staff and partners participated in a collective reflection process that enabled the co-creation of the ECOS 2025 plan.
2020 also marks the EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA re-accreditation for the school for a maximum period of 5 years.
As a result of the "Daring Together" initiative, more than 200 people representing the Audencia ecosystem were led:
With this strategic plan, Audencia remains true to its roots, DNA and history while working for the common good of society. It does not aim to be the best school in the world, but to be a better school for the world, and to be recognized as such in the national and international scene.
The ECOS 2025 strategic plan is taking on its full force through the accomplishment of numerous flagship projects:
All these projects, and many more, allow Audencia to consolidate its status as a major player in the French, European and even global business school landscape.
With STOA 2030, our goal is to train individuals capable of influencing and supporting society in all its transitions: economic, ecological, political, media, cultural, social, and technological.
In ancient Greece, the stoa was an integral part of the Agora – the public meeting place where people gathered to interact, debate and think together. The stoa was also the cradle of Stoic philosophy. Just like this open space, Audencia’s campuses are places of interaction and personal transformation, sparking new ideas and creating a collective momentum. STOA implies a vision based on personal ethics and intellectual rigor that makes us aware of the interdependence of the world around us with the purpose of meeting the great challenges facing the world today
A new generation of enlightened decision-makers
Audencia trains individuals capable of understanding, deciding and acting pragmatically, rigorously and effectively. Individuals capable of operating with agility in multiple environments, while forging dialogue between local and global actors, the short and the long term, performance and responsibility
A practice-oriented pedagogy
At Audencia, our students acquire much more than skills: we offer them transformative academic, professional, associative, intercultural and multidisciplinary experiences. It is these concrete, human and collective experiences that fuel their convictions and enable them to operate boldly and appropriately.
