La Sorbonne University Paris facts
La Sorbonne University in Paris is one of the oldest and best universities in Europe. La Sorbonne was founded in the 12th century. As the number of students skyrocketed, it was split into 13 universities in 1971. These universities and enginnering schools have merged to create world level universities such as Sorbonne University and Paris-Saclay. Paris facts.
Sorbonne University Paris
Sorbonne University in Paris (Sorbonne Université in French) is the result of the merger on January 1st 2018 of Paris 6 UPMC and Paris 4 Sorbonne. Sorbonne University is one of the largest and best universities in France and in the world, in the field of Arts, Languages, Letters, Humanities and Social Sciences. 21,000 students in initial training and 2,615 in continuing education, 2,059 staff including 1,237 teachers, research professors and researchers and 822 support staff, 92 degrees offered, 18 training and research units, 2 schools: Celsa and Espé, 16 sites in the region, 7 doctoral schools.
The main campus of Sorbonne Université is Jussieu on the Seine river banks, the former and modern campus of UMPC.
Paris 75005 France
Atrium of Sorbonne University Jussieu campus
Paris University history
Founded in the 12th century, La Sorbonne was one of the oldest and best universities in Europe. In 1971, in the aftermath of the May 68 Sorbonne riots, it was split into 13 universities, numbered from 1 to 13.
Paris 1, Paris 4 occupy the original building of Sorbonne University in Quartier Latin near Le Panthéon. Sorbonne plan. 350 000 students study today at these universities. Most of these universities merged into bigger multidisciplinary universities including a few Grandes Ecoles. Two of them, Paris Sorbonne University and Université Paris Cité are already prominent French universities.
The Institut Catholique de Paris is a catholic university with premises near Luxembourg Gardens. Web site.
There is an ongoing merger of universities and of the typically French Grandes Ecoles, dominant in the fields of engineering (Ecole Polytechnique, Centrale Supélec, Mines) and business administration (HEC, Essec, ESCP).
Richelieu amphitheater in Sorbonne University
La Sorbonne history
During the Middle Ages, La Sorbonne was very famous. It attracted students and professors of law, theology, medicine and philosophy from all over Europe. A few of the Colleges where they operated are still existing with new functions close to Le Panthéon and Luxembourg Gardens.
Collège des Bernardins, 18, rue de Poissy (map). Today a cultural and education institution managed by the catholic diocese of Paris. Web site.
Hotel de Cluny, 28, rue du Sommerard (map). Today the Musée de Cluny, devoted to the Middle Ages.
Collège Sainte-Barbe, 4, rue Valette (map). Today, the Sainte-Barbe public library. Web site.
Collège d'Harcourt, 44, Boulevard Saint-Michel (map). Today, the Lycée Saint-Louis, a top level high school.
Collège des Cordeliers, 21, Rue Ecole de Médecine (map). Today part of the School of medecine.
Collège des Bernardins, now a cultural center
Paris Sorbonne University apartment and hotel map
Booking.comApartments and hotels near Sorbonne Université on the map
Top hotel near La Sorbonne
Hotel Delavigne is 250 m from Odéon Metro station and 500 m from La Sorbonne. It offers soundproofed accommodation with free Wi-Fi. Each room mixes contemporary decor with antique furniture and has a flat-screen TV. The rooms on the upper floors offer views over the rooftops of central Paris. Left bank hotels.
Paris 750060 France
Hotel Delavigne near Luxembourg Gardens
Sorbonne detailed history
The Sorbonne University, first called Collège de la Sorbonne, owes its name to the modest canon of Cambrai, then of Paris, Robert de Sorbon. This man came from from Rethel in the Ardennes. He became the chaplain and confessor of Saint Louis, the famous King of France of the 13th century, who built the Sainte Chapelle. The king gave him land on rue Coupe-Gueule (now rue de la Sorbonne) plus two houses in 1253 to found the college there. Poor students would now find board and lodging and receive theology lessons, without paying a penny.
From the time of its creation, the college accommodated a hundred schoolchildren. Its fame then spread throughout Europe. After the troubles of the Hundred Years War, where the college took the side of the Burgundians, therefore, the English, the prior Guillaume Fichet had the first Parisian printing works installed at the Sorbonne with the help of 3 German typographers, Gering, Crantz and Friburger. In 1472, they already had printed 30 books. Until the Revolution, the Sorbonne was the seat of the Faculty of Theology and the University of Paris.
Richelieu, prior and principal of the college, had Jacques Le Mercier rebuild the old buildings entirely in 1626: he added 4 pavilions flanked by slate roofs around a vast courtyard. From 1885, the university started to run out of space. Other buildings were built by NĂ©not alongside the old Sorbonne. The only monument that remains of the Sorbonne of Richelieu is the chapel, the foundation stone of which he himself laid in 1635. His marble tomb, made by Girardon (1694) on plans by Le Brun can be seen in the chapel.
Universities in downtown
The first 7 Universities, numbered 1 to 7, have campuses in downtown. The remaining 8 to 13 universities have campuses around the city. The downtown faculties cover all possible subjects at the highest level. Admission is done per University. Refer to their web site.
Paris 1 is called Panthéon Sorbonne.
Paris 2 is called Panthéon Assas.
Paris 3 is called Sorbonne Nouvelle.
Paris 4, called Paris Sorbonne, is now part of Sorbonne Université.
Paris 5, called Université Paris Descartes,is now part of Université Paris Cité.
Paris 6, called UPMC, is now part of Sorbonne Université.
Paris 7, called Paris Diderot, is now part of Université Paris Cité.
The most famous student residence in downtown is Cité Universitaire, a magnificent series of independent country pavilions set in a beautiful park. Cité Universitaire facts. Crous manages 6750 student rooms and apartments in downtown.
The Assas Campus
Université Paris Cité
Université Paris Cité is the merger in January 2020 of Paris 5 Paris Descartes and Paris 7 Paris Diderot. With 58,000 students, 7,500 staff members and 142 laboratories, the Université de Paris embodies Paris as a modern city that is open to the world, youth and knowledge. Staff: 4,500 teacher-researchers; 3,000 administrative and technical staff; 20 percent of staff from INSERM (French national institute for health and medical research). Students: 58,000 students; 22 graduate schools; 8 percent of doctorate degrees earned in France. Scientific staff: 142 research laboratories; Leading French university in terms of citation rate per article; 53rd place in the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (forecast); 10 percent of scientific articles published in France. Patrimony: 500,000 square metres of real estate property; 35 university buildings.
Paris 75013 France
Sorbonne Paris Cité Tolbiac campus
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
The Bibliothèque Nationale de France is a main ressource for university staff and students. It preserves the French national documentary heritage. Its collections include 15 million books, manuscripts, prints, photographs, videos. The BNF’s digital library, Gallica, provides access to four millions documents.
The François-Mitterrand Library is the main site of BNF. It has two levels: the Research Library (Rez-de-Jardin), open to accredited readers, and the Reference Library (Haut-de-Jardin), open to anyone 16 years of age and over.
The reading rooms of the Reference Library provide free access to reference collections in all fields of knowledge: printed books and magazines, audiovisual documents, periodicals, digital books or data bases. The Reference Library is open to anyone 16 years of age and over, after the purchase of a reader’s pass.
Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris
Cité Universitaire de Paris
It is not very easy to find student housing in Paris. The Crous centralizes all available rooms. A notable exception is the Cité Internationale Universitaire. It is located in a 34 hectares park south of Paris, 10 minutes by metro from the left Bank and Notre Dame Cathedral. The Cité Universitaire offers up to 6,000 seats and welcomes approximately 12,000 students each year from over 130 different nationalities. The students are housed in 37 pavilions built between 1925 and 1969 and managed independently from the University of Paris. Many of them are architectural treasures.
The Cité Universitaire is really a good place to live in Paris. There are many applicants, but you can apply to different houses. An intense sportive and social life, encounters with young people from all over the world will be the reward.
Paris 75014 France
Cité Universitaire de Paris
Paris Saclay university, number one worldwide for mathematics
As early as the 1940s, the two physicists Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie had already considered decentralizing the Sorbonne to the southern suburbs of the city. In 1942, Irène Joliot-Curie even informed the rector of the University of the existence of a potential site on the Saclay plateau. In the 1950s, higher education establishments were established on the immediate outskirts of the Saclay plateau. In 1955, the University of Paris established itself in the region with the purchase of fifty hectares of land in the municipalities of Orsay and Bures-sur-Yvette. The following year, laboratories from the Paris Faculty of Sciences, which became Paris-Sud University in 1971, were brought together on the Orsay campus. Paris-Sud University became the nucleus of Paris-Saclay, created on November 6, 2019. Paris-Saclay succeeds Paris-Sud University, abolished on January 1, 2020. It includes the prestigious École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay, AgroParisTech, CentraleSupélec and the Institute of Optics, as well as the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies (IHES) as component institutions. Its long-term perspective is to merge with its two “associate-member” universities, the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and the University of Évry-Val-d'Essonne in 2025. The 2020 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) has placed Paris-Saclay University first in the world for mathematics. The University’s position as a research-intensive university of international standing was further cemented by being ranked 9th in the world for Physics (1st in Europe), as well as a top 25 place for medicine and agriculture.
Saint-Aubin 91190 France