The École nationale des chartes is a French grande école which specializes in historical sciences. It was founded in 1821 and was located first at the National Archives, then at the Palais de la Sorbonne (5th arrondissement). In October 2014, it moved to 65 rue de Richelieu (University of Paris II), opposite the National Library of France. The school is administered by the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research. It holds the status of grand établissement. Its students, who are recruited by competitive examination and hold the status of trainee civil servant2, receive the qualification of archivist-paleographer after completing a thesis. They generally go on to follow a career as heritage curators in the archive and visual fields, as library curators or as lecturers and researchers in the human and social sciences. In 2005, the school also introduced Master’s degrees, for which students were recruited based on an application file, and, in 2011, doctorates.