List of public universities in France

This is a list of the eighty-one autonomous public universities in France.,[1] including the one French "university centre",[2] which are distinguished as being state institutes of higher education and research that practice open admissions. The list does not include public institutions that practice competitive admissions, such as Paris Dauphine University, which changed status in 2004, the three national polytechnic institutes,[3] the grandes écoles (among which are the three universities of technology),[4] or private universities, such as the Catholic universities, the Protestant universities, the private secular universities, and the American University of Paris. This list does make mention of university systems related to the public universities, including the historic city university systems[5] and the new centres for research and higher education.[6]

The list is organized by academy because this is how the French educational system is organized.[7] France is divided into thirty-five academies, of which thirty-one host the principal administrative seats of universities. Although the rectors or vice-rectors who head the academies do not have administrative control over the universities, the division into academies is nonetheless important because it governs admissions. Students in France have the right to be admitted to a university in the academy in which they passed the baccalauréat,[8] and in some cases to a university in another specified academy.

Academy of Aix and Marseille

Academy of Amiens

Academy of Besançon

Academy of Bordeaux

See also

Academy of Caen

Academy of Clermont-Ferrand

See also

Academy of Corsica

Academy of Créteil

See also

Academy of Dijon

Academy of French Guiana

Academy of French Polynesia

Academy of Grenoble

See also

Academy of Guadeloupe

This rectorate is home to the Guadeloupe campus of the University of the French West Indies and Guiana, which is under the Academy of French Guiana.

Academy of Lille

See also

Academy of Limoges

Academy of Lyon

See also

Academy of Martinique

This rectorate is home to the Schoelcher campus of the University of the French West Indies and Guiana, which is under the Academy of French Guiana.

Academy of Mayotte

There are no public universities in this vice-rectorate.

Academy of Montpellier

See also

Academy of Nancy and Metz

Academy of Nantes

Academy of Nice

Academy of Orléans and Tours

Academy of New Caledonia

Academy of Paris

See also

Academy of Poitiers

Academy of Reims

Academy of Rennes

See also

Academy of Réunion

Academy of Rouen

Academy of Saint Pierre and Miquelon

There are no universities in this rectorate.

Academy of Strasbourg

See also

Academy of Toulouse

See also

Academy of Versailles

See also

Academy of Wallis and Futuna

There are no public universities in this vice-rectorate.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ The French Ministry of Education has commonly referred to there being eighty-seven public universities. However, this is to include four institutions that are not, properly speaking, public universities, and to count as three universities what is now one university. Of the four institutions that are not universities, one is Paris Dauphine University, formerly Paris 9, which changed status in 2004, becoming an institution with selective admissions. The three others are the national polytechnic institutes. Although Article 24 of the law regarding the organization of higher education in France (law 84-52 of 26 January 1984, the loi Savary) lumps the national polytechnic institutes together with the public universities, the former are consortia of grandes écoles rather than individual autonomous institutions with non-competitive admissions, and so are best understood as being in a separate category. The three universities that have joined are the Strasbourg universities, Louis Pasteur University, Marc Bloch University, and Robert Schuman University, which fused as of 1 January 2009 to become the University of Strasbourg.
  2. ↑ The Jean-François Champollion University Center for Teaching and Research in the Academy of Toulouse calls itself a university centre rather than a university, but the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research classes it together with the universities. The University of Nîmes in the Academy of Montpellier was also a university centre but it renamed itself as a university as of September 2007.
  3. ↑ There are three "national polytechnic institutes" that were established in 1970 (the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, the Grenoble Institute of Technology and the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine). Although these are classed together with the universities under Article 24 of the law regarding the organization of higher education in France (law 84-52 of 26 January 1984, the loi Savary), they are quite different from the public universities in this list. They are consortia of grandes écoles rather than individual autonomous institutions with non-competitive admissions.
  4. ↑ Although called "universities", the three universities of technology, the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard, the University of Technology of Compiègne, and the University of Technology of Troyes are in fact non-university institutes (écoles extérieures aux universités), as defined by Chapter I, Section II (Articles 34 through 36) of French law 84-52 of 26 January 1984 regarding higher education (the loi Savary).
  5. ↑ French public universities in some cities are commonly spoken of as being multiple campuses of a larger city university system. For instance, the University of Paris system is said to be composed of 13 campuses, Paris I through Paris XIII, and this was the case in 1970. However, this view no longer reflects the reality as of 2007, which is of largely autonomous universities that fall under the academies in ways that do not necessarily respect the old groupings. To take the Paris example, three universities that bear the University of Paris name, Paris VIII, Paris XII, and Paris XIII, are in fact in the Academy of Créteil, and two others, Paris X and Paris XI, are in the Academy of Versailles, whereas the University of Marne la Vallée, which does not have a University of Paris campus number, is governed by the Academy of Paris.
  6. ↑ Universities are grouping themselves in new ways as of 2007. The current trend is to create groups called Centres for Research and Higher Education (Pôles de Recherche et d'Enseignement Supérieur, or PRES), which include public universities and other institutes of higher education and research. Thus, the University of Toulouse is a PRES that was created only as recently as March 2007, and that includes the former Universities of Toulouse I, II, and III, as well as three other institutions in Toulouse. Some of the new centres call themselves "universities", but it is probably too early to consider them as collegiate universities. They are better understood as loose groupings, or consortia, of universities and other institutions of higher education and research.
  7. ↑ Web page of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research showing a map of France divided into academies, with links – some broken – to pages that list the universities for each academy. (in French) Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  8. ↑ Web site of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research describing the proposed new law for universities, with reference to the present rules. (in French) Retrieved 2007-10-21.