Over a hundred languages and civilizations

Since its creation, L’Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) has developed and shared its unique expertise in the languages, cultures, and societies of the world.

Over the centuries, Inalco has become a unique institution, teaching more than 100 languages from Central Europe to Africa and from Asia, Oceania and America. Nowadays, there is no other university for world languages and cultures that offers such a diversity of courses and knowledge in one place.

Its history is rich and diverse, and its values are anchored in an assumed humanistic vision of a world in perpetual change.

Inalco trains its students to the highest levels to ensure their professional integration and improve their knowledge about cultural areas.

Thanks to over 200 partnership agreements, Inalco conducts research projects in over one hundred countries and offers joint programs with French and foreign universities: Inalco students and the students of our international partners can take advantage of an immersion experience to complement their studies. Inalco also offers online programmes.

With 120 nationalities and more than 3,000 classes, the commingling of cultures is a tangible feature of Inalco.

Most of Inalco's programmes are taught in French but we also offer courses in the languages of the Philippines (Tagalog, Cebuano and Ilocano). In the Philippines, Inalco has a longstanding partnership with the University of the Philippines Diliman.

The university, along with its professors, students, and partners, organizes over a hundred cultural events a year. Inalco also participates in several international film festivals and strives to share its knowledge and expertise with society.

Degrees and diplomas to serve differing needs

The undergraduate, graduate and continuing education courses offered at Inalco allow students to gain:

• mastery of a language and culture over a degree program
• specific expertise to complement other qualifications.

Inalco offers different levels and types of courses:

• Bachelor’s degrees: courses by language and region that can include a professional specialization.
• Master’s degrees: regional programs targeting a research discipline or professional direction.
• Doctorate: PhD research at Inalco’s Doctoral School.
• Diplomas: certificates, introductory diplomas, language and culture diplomas, professional Master’s degrees

Language and Civilisation courses – from INALCO’s Departments

This block of courses refers to teaching in languages, history, geography, anthropology.

Professional Track courses – from INALCO’s Professional Tracks

• International Trade
• International Relations
• Intercultural Communication
• Language teaching and education
• Natural language processing

Career prospects

• International business: import-export, marketing, logistics, finance, corporate consulting
• International relations: diplomacy, defence, communications, humanitarian work, intercultural mediation, business intelligence, journalism
• Languages: multilingual engineering, SEO specialist, language processing, translation and interpreting
• Culture and tourism: cultural activities, interpreting, transportation companies, cultural heritage conservation
• Education and research.