By Aisha Labi

Reims, France

As he wanders around a leafy courtyard in search of his partner for a freshman-orientation bonding exercise, Oliver Musial looks like a typical college student embarking on his studies at any American university. But the setting is a former 17th-century Jesuit college in Reims, one of France's most historic cities, and Mr. Musial is something of an academic pioneer.

He is one of 81 students who last week began their college career at the new Euro-American campus of the Institute of Political Studies of Paris, the prestigious higher-education institution best known by its nickname Sciences Po.

The opening of the Reims campus, which offers most of its courses in English, marks the first time that a French higher-education institution has created a campus specifically focused on North American studies, and on attracting students from that part of the world, institute officials say.

For Mr. Musial, who is from Montreal and who also considered attending colleges in Canada and the United States, Sciences Po in Reims presented not just a more affordable option than an American institution, but an opportunity to eventually study in the United States, thanks to the Sciences Po requirement that students spend one of their three undergraduate years studying abroad.

Mr. Musial has just arrived in France, but he leaves no doubt about where his true geographic inclination lies. "I really want to go to the U.S.," he says.

The Reims campus, in eastern France, is the sixth outside of Paris to be opened by Sciences Po. Each of the institution's other regional outposts also has a specific geographic focus. The first branch campus, opened a decade ago in Nancy, has a Franco-German orientation, for example, while the one in Menton is focused on the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and the Persian Gulf. Sciences Po recruits internationally to give each campus, including its latest, a global flavor. 

 Richard Descoings, the longtime director of Sciences Po, says that the succession of campuses reflects an evolving notion of how a successful university must orient itself.

"Most universities in most countries are extremely nationally focused," he says. Only a handful have realized that, in order to train "the future global elite," they must turn their attention outward.

The branch campuses are emphatically not an attempt to franchise the highly respected Sciences Po brand, Mr. Descoings says, but are an extension of the Paris-based institution's reach.

"We are a decentralized campus, but the quality obsession we have is centralized," he says. Legally, the campus in Reims, like all the others, is a part of Sciences Po Paris, he says. And just as the Paris campus draws part-time faculty members from other prestigious institutions in the city, so will much of the teaching staff on the Reims campus be drawn from the major local institution, the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne. "We have our own faculty, of course, but it would be useless not to benefit from the quality of the professors who are permanent members of the faculty of the Sorbonne and other universities."

Helping Regional Development

The swift transformation of the historic site into a student-ready campus was achieved in two years with the backing and financial support of the city, the local department of Marne, and the region of Champagne-Ardenne. Each governmental unit is paying a third of the total cost of €76 million, or nearly $100-million., to establish the new campus, and each will contribute an additional €1,000, or almost $1,300, per student in continuing support.

The financial commitment is significant, Reims's deputy mayor, Serge Pugeault, acknowledges, but the investment is expected to help stimulate new streams of economic growth in a region where the economy has been centered around the champagne industry and automotive subcontractors.

The local university already has a student population of 25,000, and two other grandes écoles, as France's nonuniversity elite institutions of higher education are known, are also setting up outposts in Reims, although without the level of financial support that Sciences Po is receiving.

One of the first priorities for the city will be to build enough student housing to accommodate the influx of new students, says Mr. Pugeault.

The city, whose cathedral was the traditional site for the coronation of the kings of France, was chosen in part because of its proximity to Paris—just 45 minutes away by high-speed train. It also has a long connection with North America, dating from the end of World War I, when wealthy Americans like Andrew Carnegie helped rebuild the city after its near destruction.

"Reims is a place where Americans have always played a major role," says Nathalie Jacquet, director of the Reims campus. That role is reflected in the new campus's focus, which Ms. Jacquet says has been a major drawing point for applicants to the new program. Of the inaugural class of 81 students, 43 are from high schools outside France. Eventually, she says, the goal is for half of the students on the campus to come from North America.

Because most classes will be taught in English, knowing French is not necessary, although fluency in English is required. For both French and non-French applicants, the campus's "openness to Canada and America represents the American dream," she says. "They know that here they will have the opportunity to study in America, they know that the best centers are in America, and they want to be part of that adventure," Ms. Jacquet says.

Attracting More North Americans

Sciences Po faces some hurdles in attracting American and Canadian students. Although highly regarded in France and elsewhere in Europe, it has weaker name recognition across the Atlantic, especially among high-school students.

Alyssa Perkinson, who along with her twin sister Emily is one of just four American students who enrolled this year, heard about Sciences Po when she spent her junior year of high school living with a family in Nantes, in western France. When she wasn't admitted to her top college choices in the United States, Sciences Po became a more attractive option for pursuing her interest in studying international relations.

Even Mr. Descoings, Sciences Po's indefatigable ambassador, concedes that "it's hard to sell Sciences Po to American students," but he says that being forced to compete with top American institutions for the best students "is excellent for us, because it obliges us to upgrade the quality we offer."

For American students, the relative affordability of Sciences Po could also prove a significant draw. Although expensive by European standards at €8,900, or nearly $11,500, a year for full tuition, scholarships are available and an undergraduate degree takes just three years to complete.

Still, Ms. Jacquet acknowledges that it will take more than discounted tuition rates to attract American students in significant numbers. She and other administrators have gone to great effort to provide elements of the collegiate experience that would resonate with students familiar with American universities. For example, orientation activities that focused on team building drew mention in the local paper's coverage of the campus opening, along with an explanation that such activities are "very usual in the United States." She says that the campus will never be in a position to offer the full range of student-life options that have become de rigueur at so many American colleges. Still, she says, as it grows and matures, the campus is certain to attract students "looking for something different than the pattern they have if they stay at home."