“We don’t recruit the elite, we train them.” This is the motto of the Collège de Paris. A model of its kind for a company which has embraced the status of a mission-driven company since 2020 and whose raison d’être is to “make excellence accessible”. The Collège de Paris is one of the largest private education groups in France. A galaxy of around thirty schools which operates across the entire range of the education market: post-baccalaureate higher education with the standard bearers Ascencia business school and Digital College, continuing professional training with Adeos Formation or support for job seekers. That is nearly 18,000 students, 4,000 foreign students and 35,000 adults in training, according to the school’s latest tally for the year 2023-2024.
On December 31, Olivier de Lagarde, its co-founder and shareholder, did not take out the party favors. The company was placed in safeguard procedure, the first step before judicial recovery. The debt trap has closed on the group: an astronomical debt – 90 million euros – whose repayments have doubled between 2022 and 2024.
But the bankruptcy of the Collège de Paris is not only financial. Last May, after several suspicious reports, the IGF – the General Inspectorate of Finance – the Igas – that of social affairs – and the IGESR – the General Inspectorate of Higher Education – urgently launched a series of investigations into the group’s practices, focusing their investigations on two establishments, the Ascencia business school, and the digital college Digital College. According to our information, these investigations would have led the State services to activate article 40 of the code of criminal procedure, referring the file to the public prosecutor.
“The Collège de Paris is to higher education what the Orpea scandal was to nursing homes”
The list of complaints would be edifying: corrupted accounting, training fraud, money laundering, misuse of corporate assets, personal enrichment and above all an organized system of illegal entry of foreigners. Clearly, certain schools would have charged tuition fees to young foreigners, who would thus have obtained a student visa, but would never have taken courses and would have disappeared. “An important link in the group’s economic model,” insists a person close to the matter. Questioned by L’Express, Olivier de Lagarde replied “not knowing this article 40” and underlined that “the general inspection reports are not final and are awaiting contradictory responses”.
How did we get to this point? And above all, why didn’t the indicators turn orange sooner? The cause is a cascade of negligence and a lack of control which reveals largely insufficient regulation of the sector. A curious casualness also from the shareholders and in particular from Bpifrance, the armed and financial arm of the State, shareholder of the company since 2022. “The Collège de Paris is to higher education what the Orpea scandal was to nursing homes,” confides a senior official close to the matter.
Digital College
© / Digital College
The adventure was nevertheless beautiful. A family adventure first. The Collège de Paris is the work of two brothers, Olivier and Nicolas de Lagarde. The first is the thinking head of this little education empire. An experienced economist, he spent a time at the University of Paris-Dauphine, where he completed a thesis in the field of insurance. “Excellent work”, underlines one of the members of the jury today. Then it was Lebanon where he taught history, and his return to France where he was in charge of the professional training system for insurers, at the National Insurance School. In 2011 with his brother, he created the Collège de Paris by bringing together the Ascencia business school, the Higher Institute of the Environment, establishments specializing in the luxury and communication professions, etc. under the same structure. Olivier de Lagarde inspires confidence. Wearing small round glasses, he travels by bike around Paris, talks about inclusiveness, equal opportunities, attacking the “elitist and selective folklore” of the French system.
The group grew quickly, swallowing up a bunch of small schools. Everywhere in the territory. And in all sectors, from the “Baguette Academy”, to the Conte arts school, including the banking and insurance professions with the Exchange College. Then it’s digital after his meeting with Ridouan Abagri, the founder of the Digital College, well introduced to French Tech and ready to surf on all the new developments. In 2022, the two partners are creating the Metaverse College on the La Défense campus to teach the secrets of blockchain, cryptocurrencies and “meta heritage” over two years. At each stage, Bpifrance is there. The public bank even co-financed the Arche campus in 2017 and acquired a 25% stake in the company with the Raise investment fund, a pioneer of “engaged finance” in 2022.
That’s it for the tails side. On the other hand, the reality is less rosy. Under condition of anonymity, a former school director tells us a completely different story: no clearly established hierarchical chain, an absence of cross-functional supervision, and above all various administrative irregularities. “A systemic problem,” he confides to L’Express. The deviations in question? Stéphane*, a former student at the Lybre school in Béthune, one of the brands of the Collège de Paris, had the bitter experience of this. His former establishment, integrated into a network of nine branches, abruptly closed its doors after the legal liquidation of the company pronounced on June 30, 2025. “A disaster, I was not able to complete my course,” explains the young man who was then only in the first year of his master’s degree. Management blames these difficulties on payment delays from OPCO, the skills operator approved by the State which finances apprenticeship contracts.
Stéphane testifies to many dysfunctions, such as the lack of transparency on the real value of “diplomas”. Internally, students complained about the low quality of teaching provided mainly by external speakers. “One of the teachers, who wanted to set up his own private school, offered to do my work-study contract with him,” explains Stéphane. “One day, he even asked me to give lessons to other students to make up for the lack of teachers.” Contacted by L’Express, the former director, Alice Morival Caron, did not wish to answer our questions. “I’m not sure I have anything to say about it,” simply writes the one who presents herself as “brand director” for Ecor Education, another eco-responsible business school from the Collège de Paris group.
Last year, a Mediapart investigation revealed that Ridouan Abagri would have paid for his wedding and financed his passion for Pokémon cards, of which he is one of the biggest collectors in France, with funds from the Digital School. At the time, the person concerned recognized his purchases and justified them as “a strategic investment” for the company. Although he has since taken up the field, he remains active in education and would now be a partner of Youssef Koutari, a Franco-Moroccan, founder of the Kout que Kout sales school. The two men would have created Elite Society, a network of around ten “schools of excellence” which wish to welcome students from next September…
For the Collège de Paris, the next deadlines are now legal. Administrative decisions could take place as early as April, leading to the closure of certain establishments. A crisis unit has been set up bringing together the services of the Ministry of Labor, Higher Education and National Education with the rectorates, in order to find a place in a training center for all students who find themselves left behind. The end of an educational chimera.
* The first name has been changed
Two digits
The Collège de Paris is:
20 million euros in turnover in 2024
1.2 million losses
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