University of Paris II: Panthéon-Assas

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The University of Paris II: Panthéon-Assas, also known as "Paris deux" or "Assas" after the rue d'Assas where it is headquartered, is an elite French university which is most famous for its degrees in law and business but also teaches administration, social and political science. It was founded as the continuation of the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Paris.

Contents 1 About Assas 2 Campus 3 Students and alumni 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] About Assas

Assas is known as France's Oxbridge or Harvard: it is the country's premier law and business university, and a breeding ground for politicians.

All of France's universities are as mainstream as possible, the only thing necessary to enter being a high school diploma and the marginal admission fee. Assas however is elitist. Even though the university is required by law to admit anyone who meets the aforementioned conditions, strain is put on the students from the start and the first year drop-out rate consistently hovers in the 75-90% region. Thus, a degree from Assas holds an equivalent reputation to one from a grande école.

For these reasons it has several peculiarities: while all of France's universities are notoriously understaffed and underbudgeted, Assas gets all the money it needs from the Education Ministry, and while most of France's universities lean culturally and politically to the left, Assas leans to the right.

[edit] Campus

As most universities in Paris, Assas takes its formal name Paris II (Panthéon-Assas) from the places where it is located.

The administration offices and postgraduate studies are located in a building which is in the plaza that rings the Parisian landmark of the Pantheon. The Pantheon is in the latin quarter of Paris where its most prestigious schools are located: it is only a few blocks away from e.g. the Sorbonne, the Collège de France and X's former campus. Paris' Latin quarter is also famous for its busy night life. Paris II (Panthéon-Assas) shares this spot with Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and they both administer the Cujas Law and Economics Library, which is the largest of its kind in France.

The relatively small but recently refitted Vaugirard campus, in the rue de Vaugirard, is the campus which is located in the comparatively less prestigious area of the city: it is where the freshman studies take place.

The school's main campus is a huge, at least for Paris, 70's architecture building in the rue d'Assas. Its gigantic entrance hall leads to the main amphitheater, which can seat 1,700, where concerts are sometimes held. The building also has over a dozen other amphitheaters of all sizes, countless classrooms and labs, etc. This is also where the student associations are located. Paradoxically the student library at the Assas campus is relatively smaller than the ones at Vaugirard or the Pantheon.

There is another campus located in Melun in the south east of Paris.

[edit] Students and alumni

Like in better institutions of higher education the world over, most students of Assas come from upper and middle-upper class families. It is indeed where most people from the "rallyes" go (even more than in Sciences po and HEC) and it is not uncommon to find some families whose have gone to Assas for several generations. Most first year students are female and even though more female students drop out than males, there is still a clear majority of women up to the graduate level.

There is a large minority of foreign exchange students, as in most Parisian universities, which pride themselves on their cosmopolitanism. Conversely, Assas encourages its students to spend at least a semester in a foreign university, especially other universities in the European Union, through the Socrates and Erasmus student exchange programmes. It also has a few highly selective graduate programs with Ivy League schools and other reputed universities in the United States of America and in Canada; as well as the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and University College London in the UK; there are similar but less selective programs for universities all over the world, even though there is an understandable marked preference for the first world.

The school's alumni include François Mitterrand, former President of the French Republic, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, France's previous UMP Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, France's current UMP Prime Minister, Jean-Marie Le Pen, president of the Front National party, and Alain Madelin, ex-President of Démocratie Libérale (now merged within the UMP). Most famous figures in the French legal world are Assas alumni.

[edit] See also

• University of Paris
• Grandes écoles
• Sorbonne
• Magistère de Juriste d'Affaires

[edit] External links

• Assas' Official Homepage — The page is bilingual, just hover over the left-hand menu to see items in English.
• Careers Homepage — Alumni directory and job offers (in French).
• Assas' Official Sports Club Homepage — All about sports at Assas (in French).
• Assas.net — A website and forum managed by students (in French).
• BerMüPa — Website of the double degree program between the Humboldt University (Berlin), Ludwig-Maximilians University (Munich) and Paris II, maintained by students (in French and German).
• CORPO — Website of Assas' CORPO, a very active student association (in French).
• Double maîtrise — Website of the double degree program between Assas and Cambridge, maintained by students (in English).
• UEJF — Website of Assas' UEJF, an association for Jewish students (in French).
• PAK — Website of Assas' rugby team (in French).
• Wrestling Team — Website of Assas' wrestling team (in French).
• Satellite image of main site from Google Maps
• MJA Business Law— Website of the Magistère de Juriste d'Affaires of Paris II Assas.