Since 2020, ESSEC is associated to CY Cergy Paris University and member of CY Alliance (ex COMUE University Paris Seine). As associated partner of CYU, ESSEC participates to its governance, in particular through the strategic board. The partnership between ESSEC and the university is administered by a board composed of eight members:
- Two representatives of ESSEC
- Two representatives of CYU
- One representative from the Paris Ile-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIR)
- One representative from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
-  Two representatives of the Alumni

The strategic board reports to the site council of the university, especially for the CY Initiative (Initiative Science-Innovation-Territory-Economy), a project selected by the French government in the framework of the PIA program ( “Investments for the Future” program). This project will focus on three main objectives:

• An international research university, positioned as a leading international player in the field of Social Sciences, Management and Modelling. This selective university will offer Masters and PhD level programs.

• An Undergraduate College, with the social mission of student success in the territory. This College will offered diversified, flexible bachelor-level programs.

• A campus that will embody the renewed academic environment, articulated around an urban center and the surrounding nature, enabling a reappropriation of the banks of the river Oise and the big lakes of Cergy.

CY University is member of european EUTOPIA Alliance. The mission of EUTOPIA is to build in the long-term a unique and daring alliance of transformative and engaged institutions: the Vrije Universitat Brussels (Belgium), CY Cergy Paris Université (France), the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), the University of Pompeu Fabra (Spain) and the University of Warwick (United Kingdom).